FUCK THE POLICE
911 EVERY DAY
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/...ar_n_671018.html?ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false
"In a major victory for gay rights activists, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday that a voter initiative banning same-sex marriage in California violated the Constitution's equal protection and due process rights clauses.
After a five-month wait, 9th Circuit District Court Judge Vaughn Walker offered a 136-page decision in the case of Perry v. Schwarzenegger, firmly rejecting Proposition 8, which was passed by voters in November 2008."
The supreme courts treatment of the equal protection clause is interesting. If it's a protected class, essentially no state interest is strong enough to overcome it. The only real member of the protected class right now, though, is race. If it's unprotected, then a rational scrutiny test applies. "Rational", in this instance, means "not insane". So pretty much any state interest will be valid. They did create a middle category between the two after a while, but the only class they've ever decided to put in this category is sex. They've previously said that sexual orientation isn't in either the protected or semi-protected tiers. If they do promote sexual orientation, though, it may open the floodgates to a much more expansive interpretation of the equal protection clause. And with that, the supreme court could get itself involved in politics, which is precisely what the rationality test was designed to avoid.