Two lawyers who squared off in the legal battle over the 2000 US presidential election teamed up on Wednesday to challenge California’s gay marriage ban in a move that, if successful, would allow same-sex couples to wed anywhere in the US.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of two same-sex California couples barred from marrying under the voter-approved ban known as Proposition 8, puts them at odds with gay rights advocates who see a federal court challenge as too risky and fear a loss in the US Supreme Court.
Lawyers Ted Olson and David Boies, who opposed each other in the Bush v. Gore US Supreme Court case that put former US president George W. Bush in the White House, said that gay people who cannot marry were turned into second-class citizens by Proposition 8 in violation of the US Constitution.
Olson represented Bush and Boies represented former US vice president Al Gore in the case that settled the disputed 2000 election.
If this lawsuit prevails, it would establish the right of gay couples to marry as the law of the land, upending laws in many US states that specifically prohibit same-sex marriage.
Five of the 50 US states have legalized gay marriage. Opponents, including many religious conservatives, see gay marriage as a threat to the “traditional family.”
California’s Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld Proposition 8, which defines marriage exclusively as between a man and a woman, as a valid amendment to the state’s constitution. The same court last May struck down a state law prohibiting same-sex marriage, opening the way for an estimated 18,000 gay couples to wed before the proposition was approved by California voters in November.
‘FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT’
“This case is about equal rights guaranteed every American under the United States Constitution,” Olson, who served as US solicitor general under Bush, said in Los Angeles. “For too long, gay men and lesbians who seek stable, committed, loving relationships within the institution of marriage have been denied that fundamental right that the rest of us freely enjoy.”
The lawsuit was brought on Friday before the California high court ruling. On Wednesday, the lawyers filed a request for a federal court order to lift the ban and allow same-sex marriages to continue until the case is resolved.
Andrew Pugno, one of the lawyers who successfully defended Proposition 8 in state court, said the will of the voters was under attack.
“This new federal lawsuit, brought by a pair of prominent but socially liberal lawyers, has very little chance of succeeding,” he said.
Many conservatives oppose gay marriage while many liberals support it. Boies and Olson cast the debate in nonpartisan terms.
“We come from different parts of the political spectrum. But I think Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, all recognize the importance of equal rights guaranteed by the Constitution,” Boies said. “This is a civil rights issue. A big one.”
WARY
But gay rights activists are wary.
“A federal lawsuit at this time is terribly risky,” said Jenny Pizer, one of the lawyers for Lambda Legal Marriage Project who argued against Prop 8 before the California court.
Her organization, the American Civil Liberties Union and others said in a statement that “without more groundwork, the US Supreme Court likely is not yet ready to rule that same-sex couples cannot be barred from marriage.”
Olson and Boies disagreed, saying federal courts were ready to affirm marriage rights on the basis of sexual orientation.
Olson said there were a number of decisions by the US Supreme Court that help this case, including the high court’s 1967 ruling that struck down a Virginia statute prohibiting couples of different races from being married.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not