More groups ask California Supreme Court to overturn Proposition 8
Anti-discrimination groups and bar associations send letters to the court contending that the initiative, which bans gay marriage, is a sweeping revision of the state Constitution, not an amendment.
Reporting from San Francisco — Anti-discrimination groups and bar associations have joined 44 state legislators in calling on the California Supreme Court to overturn the anti-gay marriage initiative voters passed last week.
In letters to the court, the Anti-Defamation League and other groups sided with lawsuits that said Proposition 8, which reinstated a ban on same-sex marriage, amounted to a sweeping revision of the state Constitution instead of a more limited amendment.
Constitutional revisions can be placed on the ballot only by a two-thirds vote of the Legislature. Proposition 8 reached the ballot as a constitutional amendment after a signature campaign.
"Proposition 8 threatens the permanent and abiding nature of the requirement that laws must apply equally to all -- the most basic principle of democratic government," said the letter from the Anti-Defamation League, Asian Law Caucus, Bet Tzedek Legal Services, Japanese American Citizens League and Public Counsel.
Another letter from the Bar Association of San Francisco and other groups also urged the court to strike down the measure.
"Because Proposition 8 would shatter existing principles of equal protection and fundamental rights, as well as the judicial branch's role as final arbiter of these constitutional guarantees, it constitutes a revision of the Constitution," wrote the bar, joined by the Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area and the Impact Fund.
The legislators who have called for Proposition 8 to be overturned complained that it intruded "on the vital role of the Legislature in vetting revisions to the California Constitution."
The California Supreme Court has yet to take action on the lawsuits, which were filed the day after the election.
Dolan is a Times staff writer.
maura.dolan@latimes.com
