'Suspect' Judgment
In a decision with far-reaching implications, the justices of California's Supreme Court ruled 4–3 on May 15 to overturn a state law prohibiting samesex marriages.
The court ruled that sexual orientation was a "suspect classification," a term typically used by the U.S. Supreme Court to refer to historic bases for discrimination, such as race or national origin. By labeling sexual orientation "suspect," the California court indicated that any law based on sexual orientation would be presumed discriminatory.
Thus, the justices subjected Proposition 22—a traditional marriage referendum passed by more than 60 percent of Californians in 2000—to a "strict scrutiny" review, placing a heavy burden on the state to prove the law's necessity.
The California Court of Appeals had previously ruled that sexual orientation was not a suspect classification, because it is not an immutable characteristic. John Witte Jr., director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University, agrees with the prior ruling of the appeals court.
"In a 121-page opinion," Witte told CT, "the [California Supreme] Court does not offer a single shred of scientific evidence to prove its assertion that sexual orientation is a natural trait or immutable characteristic like race and gender."
However, Chief Justice Ronald George, who penned the majority opinion for the court, argued that immutability is not "required in order for a characteristic to be considered a suspect classification," citing previous California cases that treated religious affiliation—also not immutable—as a suspect classification.
Even if Californians pass a constitutional amendment reversing the same-sex decision, the court's reasoning would still mean ...
This article is currently available to CT subscribers only.
To continue reading:
or
Star Trek Into Darkness
(on articles open to the public, you must at least register for a free account).
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
Newsletters
Google
Comments
Displaying 1–3 of 49 comments
See all comments
God has changed me...
I feel the need to speak out about popular opinion on here concerning homosexuality. I came out of the closet as a teenager, and spent the next 10 years believing I was a lesbian, working for HRC and other gay-rights organizations. I gave God my life, He embraced me with LOVE...in the course of revealing many wrongs to me, He let me know that He has a plan for me, and it does not include women. Jesus has since opened my eyes to the culture in which I once lived, and I now understand it's deceptions. I just wanted to say that the deception of homosexuality is quite strong, and only the result of other issues. Everyone who grows up gay feels isolated, different, strange, etc. The devil then presents the idea of homosexuality, and when you find others who had your same feelings of isolation, you believe it to be true. I heard discussions from Focus on the Family and others, but those comments did nothing more than make me hate myself. Do we hate the sin or the sinner?
Peter F. Benson, editor UNITYINCHRIST.COM
Scary man...eventually all this 'legislation' will undermine the rights of Christians, across the board, and will eventually lead to a nationwide set of laws that ban on public preaching via radio, TV, and severe regulation of what is preached in church services, with a lot of real Holy Spirit inspired and led pastors ending up in jail for their faith. Don't laugh, it's happened in England, Norway, Canada and Australia where these laws have already been put in place. When the real famine of the Word takes place, what's next? 2nd coming? Good question. Look down the road to see where all this is leading to.
Mitch
in the effort to keep civil liberty we are afraid to stand up for right, if we allow this supreme court ruling in calif as just with a 4-3 vote we have given the issue allowance as being undecipherable between the judges, there is no margin for doubt in this matter, it must go before the federal level or be trashed as a mistrial, when we give in to the minority vote at the voter level because we don't think our christian vote matters we allow the same sex wanters to prevail, soon we won't be able to determine what the heck went so wrong, our constitution and it's amendments must be read and understood correctly at the federal level since state level is not possible on this matter, so goes the state so goes the country??