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Kasz216 on 27 June 2013
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zexen_lowe said:
Kasz216 said:


The thing is, the supreme court didn't rule it unconsittuional, just that they couldn't rule on it.

Generally there are 3 levels of precident.

State Precedent, "District" Precedent and Federal Precedent.

 

Supreme Court Precendet applies to everyone.


District Precedent applies to all the courts of a specific district which can include more then one state. 

State Precedent is just that... the state.

 

Well actually it's WAY more complciated then that with State and Federal courts each having seperate paralel courts who have jursidiction vs each other in various cases.... but long story short Prop 8 only effects California.   Had they affirmed the lower courts decision it would of been country wide.

Thanks, that's pretty clear

Seems like a waste of a great opportunity...but oh well, better than nothing I guess


Yeah it pretty much was it... though it was the correct call.   Proposition 8 was ruled unconsitiutional specifically because of precedents set in state law by the Californian Consitution.   Essentially that 

A) Marriage was a fundamental right.  

B)  Laws involving sexual orientation face strict scrutiny.  Which means to pass a law in California you pretty much HAVE to prove there is a good reason for pasing such a law... and to accomplish that goal your using as narrow a policy as possible.


The first one exists already nationally, but the second doesn't.   So really, if they wanted to, the Supreme Court could of ruled very narrowly and applied it only to California, but my guess is something actually the opposite.

 

I think that Kennedy probably wants to rule on the case broadly, granting gay people equal marriage rights... BUT just doesn't want to do it THIS early.   With public opinion changing  so rapidly he probably dreads the "desegregation" style enforcement tactics that may need to currently be put in place.

He's probably hoping more for the tide to swing so much in 2-3 years that at that point they can rule more broadly and the holdout states will accept it as an eventuality coming to pass.   Much like for example, repulicans in Illnois who were voting for and pushing for gay rights legislation just to get it out of the way so it stopped being an issue.