A Supreme state of mind...

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Judge Sonia Sotomayor was announced yesterday as the next Justice of the United States Supreme Court. There is no doubt that she will be confirmed as only the third woman, and first Latino, to don perhaps the most important judicial robes in the world. 

I think this will be a high, but only history will tell us for sure.

Here in California, a low as well- very low, but not complete failure.

Early in 2008, the California Supreme Court decided that the state constitution discriminated against gays and lesbians by not permitting them to marry.  It was a decision driven, in fact, by Republican-appointed justices, with the decision written by Chief Justice Ron George.

Proposition 8 was created to overturn that decision, and cleverly worded to define a marriage as only being between a man and a woman.  The intent was clear- not only "restore" marriage to its former state, but invalidate the 18,000 marriages performed between the Supreme Court's decision and the election in November.

The legal question was did Prop 8 amend the California Constitution or change the original document? Amendments can be done by Initiative, but changes have a much more burdensome process- and would never happen in CA over gay and lesbian rights issues.

On a 6-1 vote, Prop 8 was upheld- but so were the 18,000 marriages performed legally- several by me, in fact.

It is disappointing, even heartbreaking- and not just because of the actual outcome, but also because of the parallel success of a group of people imposing their religious beliefs on another group- there is perhaps nothing more un-American, nor more despicable, frankly.

We'll get there.  However, it would be a mistake to use the 18000 existing marriages as the platform for a legal challenge- we CANNOT risk the 36,000 feet we have in the door...

Last night, to the GCRM membership, via FB, I suggested we institute a National Burn Down a Church Day.  My tongue was mostly in my cheek- mostly.  Besides, shouldn't somebody who does harm to a Church (not a Synagogue or Mosque) be immune from prosecution under the Separation of Church & State rules?  :-)

SRT