UPDATE: If you don’t see the full ruling, it’s because the traffic surge has temporarily taken down Scribd embeds.
Here is the full 136-page ruling:
[U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R.] Walker, an appointee of President George H.W. Bush, heard 16 witnesses summoned by opponents of Proposition 8 and two called by proponents during a 2½-week trial in January.
Walker’s historic ruling in Perry vs. Schwarzenegger relied heavily on the testimony he heard at trial. His ruling listed both factual findings and his conclusions about the law.
Voters approved the ban by a 52.3% margin six months after the California Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage was permitted under the state Constitution.
The state high court later upheld Proposition 8 as a valid amendment to the state Constitution.
An estimated 18,000 same-sex couples married in California during the months that it was legal, and the state continues to recognize those marriages.
The federal challenge was filed on behalf of a gay couple in Southern California and a lesbian couple in Berkeley. They are being represented by former Solicitor General Ted Olson, a conservative, and noted litigator David Boies, who squared off against Olson in Bush vs. Gore.
Some early reaction…
Mine: Hooray! Here’s a list of Prop 8 rallies. Get on out there. Here in Georgia, 10th & Piedmont in Atlanta at 6.
Walker’s ruling is, plainly, a vicious assault on the very premise that marriage discrimination is legal, and that voters can decide such a matter. He does not hold back on painting, in very clear language, how each of the defendant’s arguments about why Prop 8 should stand are a farce. This is a bold, unequivocal win.
It’s Prop 8 Trial Tracker’s best case scenario for gay rights.
It’s the worst case scenario for The American Principles Project:
“Another flagrant and inexcusable exercise of ‘raw judicial power’ threatens to enflame and prolong the culture war ignited by the courts in the 1973 case of Roe v. Wade,” said Dr. Robert P. George, Founder of the American Principles Project.“In striking down California’s conjugal marriage law, Judge Walker has arrogated to himself a decision of profound social importance—the definition and meaning of marriage itself—that is left by the Constitution to the people and their elected representatives.”
“As a decision lacking any warrant in the text, logic, structure, or original understanding of the Constitution, it abuses and dishonors the very charter in whose name Judge Walker declares to be acting. This usurpation of democratic authority must not be permitted to stand.”
He read it?
Great news for real conservatives who believe in the U.S. Constitution and its guarantee of equal protection under the law! … Remember, where same-sex marriage is found to be legal and Constitutional, it will still be voluntary. You will not be forced to marry someone of the same sex. Just in case that’s been unclear up until now.
San Jose Mercury News editorial:
Today is a thrilling one for those who believe in that American ideal of equality for all. The fight is far from over. But Walker’s decision provides a measure of hope that as the case is appealed to the 9th Circuit and ultimately the Supreme Court, facts will continue to win out over fear-mongering and bigotry.
Kristin Chenoweth, “Praise God!”
“Judge Walker’s ruling overturning Prop 8 is an outrageous disrespect for our Constitution and for the majority of people of the United States who believe marriage is the union of husband and wife. In every state of the union from California to Maine to Georgia, where the people have had a chance to vote they’ve affirmed that marriage is the union of one man and one woman. Congress now has the responsibility to act immediately to reaffirm marriage as a union of one man and one woman as our national policy. Today’s notorious decision also underscores the importance of the Senate vote tomorrow on the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court because judges who oppose the American people are a growing threat to our society.”
A Daily Dish reader:
What strikes me about Judge Walker’s opinion is the amount of evidence he included there – numbered, paraphrased facts with direct citation to and quotation from the trial record. As a lawyer, I can’t say that I have ever seen a judge include that much of the trial transcript in an opinion. He would have done this to make his record so that when the case is appealed – as everyone knows it will be – he has included enough direct evidence produced at trial to support his application of the law. His clerks made that trial record their bitch, and Judge Walker took that dog for a walk.
Whether the appeals court overturns on the application of law is a different issue. But it’s not going to be a fact issue that does it. And then the way that he completely flicks away Prop 8 proponents’ experts’ testimony. The man is smart.
Memeorandum discussion.