Tuesday, December 23, 2008

NEWS: Attorney General Jerry Brown Decides to Oppose Prop. 8 in Court

According to the San Francisco Chronicle:

"...It is highly unusual for an attorney general to use the weight of his office to try to invalidate a voter-approved initiative. But Brown's 111-page filing with the California Supreme Court makes a compelling case that the measure's attempt to deprive same-sex couples of the right to marry conflicts with the state Constitution's underlying guarantees of individual liberty , which are ingrained in its very first sentences.

"My job is to see that the laws of the state are uniformly and adequately enforced, and that includes Article I of the Constitution," Brown said in a phone interview. As he noted, there is precedent for a state attorney general arguing against a voter-approved initiative that attempts to undercut civil rights: Proposition 14, passed by
voters in 1964, would have wiped out a fair-housing law. It was ultimately overturned in court."

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