Wednesday, January 06, 2010

California might have let me down, but Jerry Brown hasn't

I love Jerry Brown! Why you ask? Well let me quote:
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California Attorney General Jerry Brown has not only come out in support of repealing Proposition 8, but he's filed his court papers arguing something Barack Obama's Department of Justice didn't have the balls to do: Admit Prop 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act violate the U.S. Constitution. Might California finally be showing it can lead the equality battle?
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(Scott's Note: This relates to a court challenge from a Republican and a Democrat, the Republican - G.W. Bush's first Solicitor General - who decides how the US should argue in front of hte supreme court. Ted Olsen is trying to overturn Prop 8 on constitutional grounds - he is a conservative Republican who believes in equal protection.)
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A defendant in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the DOMA challenge spearheaded by attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies, Brown must respond to each allegation (SM: Jerry is the Att. General of CA right now - so this falls to him). He did just that, like so:
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In response to paragraph 39 of the Complaint, the Attorney General admits that, to the extent that Proposition 8 took from Plaintiffs their previously held fundamental right to marry, the measure violates the Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution on its face; and that by denying civil marriage to gay and lesbian same-sex couples that it affords to heterosexual opposite-sex couples, the California Constitution denies gay and lesbian couples and their families the same dignity, respect, and stature afforded families headed by a married couple. See In re Marriage Cases, 43 Cal.4th at 846-47.
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In response to paragraph 41 of the Complaint, and in light of the state constitutional rights confirmed by the California Supreme Court in In re Marriage Cases, the Attorney General admits that the passage of Proposition 8 violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution on its face.

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Since I was born in 1959, my first vote for President couldn't be until 1980. But my first VOTE was in 1977 when I was 18. And it was for Governor. And it was for Jerry Brown. He doesn't look like the picture below anymore. And he isn't dating Linda Ronstadt anymore. BUT he is still making me happy he was my first vote.
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You go Jerry!