California attorney general asks court to overturn gay marriage ban
The California attorney general has changed his position on the state’s new same-sex marriage ban and is now urging the Supreme Court to void “Proposition 8”.
In a dramatic reversal, Attorney General Jerry Brown filed a legal brief saying the measure that amended the California Constitution to limit marriage to a man and a woman is itself unconstitutional because it deprives a minority group of a fundamental right.
Earlier, Brown had said he would defend “Proposition 8” against legal challenges by gay marriage supporters.
But Brown said he reached a different conclusion after studying the Californian Constitution.
“It became evident that the Article 1 provision guaranteeing basic liberty, which includes the right to marry, took precedence over the initiative,” he said “Based on my duty to defend the law and the entire Constitution, I concluded the court should protect the right to marry even in the face of the 52% vote.”
After California’s electorate voted for Proposition 8 on November 4, banning same-sex marriage, Brown said he personally voted against it but would fight to uphold it as the state’s top lawyer.
He submitted his brief yesterday in one of the three legal challenges to Proposition 8 by same-sex marriage supporters.
Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment, passed with 52% of the vote and overruled the state Supreme Court decision last spring which briefly legalised gay marriage in the US’s most populous state.
