BREAKING NEWS: Federal appeals court rules California's anti-gay Prop 8 unconstitutional

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Via twitter: 

BREAKING: Federal appeals court finds California's Proposition 8 unconstitutional. (link)

-- TalkingPointsMemo (@tpm)

Great news, indeed. But let's keep our excitement in check.

First, it's my understanding, without having gotten into the weeds, that the ruling is fairly narrow.

The issue is that California granted the right to marry and then took it away, hence Judge Reinhardt's view that:

Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples. The Constitution simply does not allow for "laws of this sort."

Which is to say, this is not a ruling on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage but rather on giving (or acknowledging rights) and then taking them away.

Though certainly the ruling is not without its implications. If you're taking, even in legal fashion, about "the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians," it would seem that you support same-sex marriage and consider its illegality under any circumstances unconstitutional and unjust.

Second, the 2-1 ruling was made by a 3-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit. Prop 8's proponents can petition to have the case reheard by the full 11-judge panel.

Or, third, they could just appeal directly to the Supreme Court, and you know how that might go with a 5-4 conservative majority. (Yes, I'm counting the right-leaning Kennedy, the supposedly moderate swing vote, as a conservative.)

We shall see, of course, but for now at least we can applaud a truly fair and just ruling.