Yesterday I wrote that " For Marriage Equality be successful in California and Nation wide, we can not rely only on the GLBT community, but are Going to need a little help from our friends". Ted Olsen and David Boies are some pretty high powered friends. If the names sound a little familiar, it is because of a little case the two lawyers argued in front of the Supreme Court in 2000 : Bush v. Gore. ( Ted was the bad guy )
Seriously, when it comes to legal power-houses in the country in 2009 America, it is these two men, and it looks like they are on our side. From the NYT :
"Eight and a half years after their epic partisan battle over the fate of the 2000 presidential election, the lawyers David Boies and Theodore B. Olson appeared on the same team on Wednesday as co-counsel in a federal lawsuit that has nothing to do with hanging chads, butterfly ballots or Electoral College votes.
Their mutual goal: overturning Proposition 8, California’s freshly affirmed ban on same-sex marriage. It is a fight that jolted many gay rights advocates — and irritated more than a few — but that Mr. Boies and Mr. Olson said was important enough to, temporarily at least, set aside their political differences."
Its all a very complex legalese sort of case, but boils down to" arguing against Proposition 8 on the basis of federal constitutional guarantees of equal protection and due process." 18,000 same -sex couple ARE married, but no one today can be. Seems cut and dried to me, and a no brainier to file the case. People and groups much much wiser than me do not think so.
All the gay powers that be, save Madonna, Cher and David Geffen have come out and said SLOW DOWN, don't go this Federal route, now is not the time. BUT, Isn't that just these groups being self serving and protecting THEIR turf? The umbrella group FREEDOMTOMARRY says not:
New York, May 27, 2009 — In response to the California Supreme Court decision allowing Prop 8 to stand, four LGBT legal organizations and five other leading national LGBT groups are reminding the LGBT community that ill-timed lawsuits could set the fight for marriage back. The groups released a new publication, “Why the ballot box and not the courts should be the next step on marriage in California.” This publication discourages people from bringing premature lawsuits based on the federal Constitution because, without more groundwork, the U.S. Supreme Court likely is not yet ready to rule that same-sex couples cannot be barred from marriage. The groups also revised “Make Change, Not Lawsuits,” which was released after the California Supreme Court decision ending the ban on marriage for same-sex couples in California.
I just don't know. Why are GLBT groups so very afraid of the courts? Gay Marriage in the United States started with the Massachusetts courts GIVING marriage equality to the people of their state. Do we have Scalia and his lap dog Thomas, gosh no, but we never ever will. I do think that if anyone on the planet can argue this case successfully before the Court, it would be these two men, NOT lawyers for the GLBT groups.
LOOK at the dismal job that the lawyers who argued prop 8 before the California Supreme Court did. The Court likes gravitas.. They like seeing the big guns come in. Olsen and Boies elevate our argument to a whole new FEDERAL level. It also helps that neither lawyer has a dog in this fight. Neither is gay, neither is one of the shaggy old skeletons that have been rattling around the lgbtqi legal closet for years and years. Let's just see where this goes. The US Supreme Court would not be decided " GAY MARRIAGE" but the specific merits of the case that Olsen and Boies present them, right?
And you know, HOPEFUL Kyle, has visions of a little Amicus love coming down from the White House.
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