While those bringing Judge Walker’s historic judgment to appeal will be scrutinized by the California Supreme Court later this year, more California officials are standing behind the civil rights of LGBT Californians and pushing back hard against the continued injustices we face.
After then Governor Schwarzenegger and then Attorney General Jerry Brown supported Walker’s decision to overturn Prop 8 and refused to appeal the decision, others took up the charge. However those bringing the appeal, the same involved in the original Prop 8 case, are now subject to the discretion of the California Supreme Court as to whether they have the standing to appeal the case. That case is set to begin sometime in September and could delay any decision in the Prop 8 case until early next year.
Meanwhile, just last week, Ted Olson, on behalf of AFER, the American Foundation for Equal Rights, the group that helmed the battle in the first place, asked the courts to lift the current stay on same sex marriages granted during the appeal process. Olson pointed out that the case was to originally have been a speedy one, and with the current delay, the injustices to LGBT Americans in California is unacceptable. Now, the current Attorney General of California, Kamala Harris, has joined the effort, requesting the stay be lifted while the appeal takes place.
Harris stated…
The appeal’s likelihood of success has been substantially diminished, Harris said in her statement to the court, “both by the United States Attorney General’s conclusion that classifications based on sexual orientation cannot survive constitutional scrutiny and by this Court’s certification order to the California Supreme Court, which seriously questions the Court’s jurisdiction to decide the merits of the case.”
Harris went on to cite the recent decision by the Obama administration not to defend DOMA in appeals court.
