Watch: ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero documents the debate for and against same-sex marriage outside the California Supreme Court.
Late last week, the California Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Strauss v. Horton, the case brought by the ACLU, Lambda Legal, the National Center for Lesbian Rights urging the Court to invalidate Proposition 8 -- the ballot initiative that stripped gay couples of the right to marry.
Our lawsuit says that Proposition 8 is an improper revision rather than an amendment of the California Constitution because it eliminated a basic right, but just for one minority -- a minority which has been a target for discrimination again and again (the very title of the initiative was "Eliminates the right to marry for same-sex couples").
This case is not just about marriage or gay people. If a simple majority of the voters can take this core right away from gay people, it can take any right away from any other group as well (Kenneth Starr who argued for the supporters of Prop 8 acknowledged this in court last week.)
If Prop. 8 is upheld, then Californians could, for example, vote to take religious freedom away from Muslims, or free speech rights away from women, or the right to vote away from Chinese-Americans. This case is important for every Californian: it's about whether the limits we've set on the power of the majority have meaning.
The California courts have a solemn responsibility to enforce the state constitution to protect the rights of all people, regardless of popular opinion. We hope the court will recognize that it is not just the rights of lesbian and gay people, but the rights of all Californians that it must protect by striking down Proposition 8.
The court is expected to rule within 90 days.
Check out the Tell 3 Campaign -- an effort to move people on LGBT issues by having personal one-on-one conversations. The ACLU launched the Tell 3 Campaign with Join the Impact, one of the grassroots groups that started as a response to Proposition 8.
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