AntiGayBigots

Brown asks state high court to overturn Prop. 8

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, December 19, 2008

(12-19) 19:43 PST SAN FRANCISCO — State Attorney General Jerry Brown, in a surprise turnabout, asked the California Supreme Court on Friday to overturn Proposition 8, saying the voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage violates basic rights guaranteed in the state Constitution.

Brown, who is required to defend state laws unless he cannot find reasonable legal grounds to do so, said after Prop. 8 passed Nov. 4 that he would support the initiative before the state’s high court.

But in a lengthy filing late Friday, he argued that the measure was “inconsistent with the guarantees of individual liberty” in California’s governing charter.

“Proposition 8 must be invalidated because the amendment process cannot be used to extinguish fundamental constitutional rights without compelling justification,” Brown said.

The authors of the state Constitution, he said, did not intend “to put a group’s right to enjoy liberty to a popular vote.”

Hours earlier, sponsors of Prop. 8 filed arguments asking the court to uphold the ballot measure, which passed with a 52 percent majority. Andrew Pugno, attorney for the Yes on 8 [assholes], said he was disappointed by Brown’s stance.

“It’s unfortunate that the attorney general would not do his duty to defend the will of [crazy right-wing bible thumpers],” Pugno said.

The position of the attorney general, the state’s top lawyer, ordinarily carries considerable weight with the court. Brown’s office was on the losing side, however, when the court overturned California’s previous ban on same-sex marriage in May.

Asked about his change of position, Brown said Friday evening that since his initial comments the day after the election, he and senior lawyers in his office have looked closely at the court’s precedents and at the recent marriage ruling and concluded they couldn’t defend Prop. 8.

“We have a conflict between the amendment power (through voter initiatives) and the duty of the Supreme Court to protect minorities and safeguard liberty,” Brown said.

Fundamental rights in the state Constitution, including the right to marry that the state’s high court has recognized, “become a dead letter if they can just be amended” by popular vote, Brown said.

The pro-Prop. 8 brief was filed by Kenneth Starr, the former Whitewater special prosecutor, [international expert in presidential cocksucking]. and now [Supreme Asskisser] of Pepperdine University law school. He argued that [he was too old and ugly to get blow jobs like the ones President Clinton received from Monica Lewinsky (aka Humidor One)] and that the court should preserve the people’s lawmaking powers by upholding the initiative and invalidating 18,000 same-sex weddings performed before the election.

In other news, Jesus Christ is still dead after nearly 2,000 years.