Maura Dolan writes in The Los Angeles Times about the writ of certiorari filed today by marriage equality opponents. The case could now be heard before the Supreme Court of the United States.
Opponents of same-sex marriage asked the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday to overturn a federal appeals court decision that struck down Proposition 8, the 2008 California ballot initiative that limited marriage to a man and a woman.
Protect Marriage, the sponsors of Prop 8, called February’s 2-1 decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals “misguided.”
“Our Constitution does not mandate the traditional definition of marriage, but neither does our Constitution condemn it,” the group’s petition to the high court said. “Rather, it leaves the definition of marriage in the hands of the people, to be resolved through the democratic process in each state.”
Charles J. Cooper, Protect Marriage’s lead attorney in the case, said he was confident the Supreme Court would grant the review.
“The Supreme Court has made it very clear that the age-old definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman is constitutional as a matter of state public policy,” Cooper said. “The lower court decisions essentially rejected all relevant Supreme Court and appellate court precedent while attacking the character and judgment of millions of Californians.”
