The fight for equality goes on...

[deborahjross]

The American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights filed a writ petition before the California Supreme Court today urging the court to invalidate Proposition 8 if it passes. Equality California announced today.

From the article: The petition charges that Proposition 8 is invalid because the initiative process was improperly used in an attempt to undo the constitution’s core commitment to equality for everyone by eliminating a fundamental right from just one group – lesbian and gay Californians. Proposition 8 also improperly attempts to prevent the courts from exercising their essential constitutional role of protecting the equal protection rights of minorities. According to the California Constitution, such radical changes to the organizing principles of state government cannot be made by simple majority vote through the initiative process, but instead must, at a minimum, go through the state legislature first.

For more discussion, see the statement by the ACLU.

Comments

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

Me, too. I parted company with them for a time, quite a while ago, over their opposition to mandatory HIV testing for suspected rapists. Their position at the time was that since there was nothing to be done to treat a woman if she had been exposed, the violation of the suspect's rights took precedence. I vehemently disagreed, and now we know that early intervention can significantly decrease the risk of contracting HIV after definite exposure (I sat through enough OSHA lectures on needlestick exposure to blood-born diseases). But I got over it, and set aside that difference because of how much else they do that is so valuable.

Post-election euphoria aside, we are going to need folks that defend our civil liberties more than ever.