The California Gay Marriage Case: A Civil Rights Cause!

An important case is about to be decided in California, regarding the issue of gay marriage.

For two brief periods, gay marriage was allowed in California, until Proposition 8 negated the idea in the 2008 election. About 18,000 couples were married before the passage of Proposition 8.

The plaintiffs are a lesbian couple with four children who are represented by a unique duo: the opposing lawyers in the Gore V. Bush case in the Supreme Court in 2000, which decided the Presidential election that year.

Ted Olsen, who represented George W. Bush, and David Boies, who represented Al Gore, have teamed together to fight Proposition 8, as discriminatory against two lesbians or gays having the right to the institution of marriage.

To many Republicans and conservatives, the fact that Ted Olsen, who was Solicitor General under President Bush, would agree to take on the case jointly with David Boies was a surprise, but Olsen argues that giving the right to marry to two people of the same gender does no harm to anyone, but provides due process and equal protection under the 14th Amendment!

No matter what the result in the California courts, it will have to be sent on to the federal appellate courts, and ultimately, to the US Supreme Court.

But Olsen’s comparison of the issue of sexual orientation in marriage to earlier 20th century civil rights struggles was an inspiring closing argument in the case!

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