Discrimination Now Legal in California

[shannon_a]

Today the California Supreme Court stated that it was legal for the people of the state to put a proposition onto the ballot that discriminates against protected minorities and that the resulting law would be entirely valid.

It was generally an expected result (though, perhaps, we hoped otherwise). The California Supreme Court has, for years, supported the limitation of rights for prisoners and ex-convicts, and though they're surely not a protected minority in the same way, it offered considerable precedent for the majority being allowed to take away the rights of the minority in this state. Today's decision just codified and expanded the way things have been done since the Reagan years.

But if I was a minority in California I would now be very, very afraid*.

Edit: Here's a great analysis of the case:
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2009/5/26/103947/856/17#c17

Including some discussion of the one justice who gets it:

In his concurring and dissenting opinion, Justice Moreno concludes that Proposition 8 is not a lawful amendment to the California Constitution because it alters the equal protection clause to deny same-sex couples equal treatment, explaining that "requiring discrimination against a minority group on the basis of a suspect classification strikes at the core of the promise of equality that underlies our California Constitution and thus ‘represents such a drastic and far-reaching change in the nature and operation of our governmental structure that it must be considered a "revision" of the state Constitution rather than a mere "amendment" thereof.’ " Justice Moreno points out that the equal protection clause is "inherently countermajoritarian" and observes that "there is no ‘underlying’ principle more basic to our Constitution than that the equal protection clause protects the fundamental rights of minorities from the will of the majority."

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* And, indeed, I am. Non-hispanic whites became a minority in California in 2001.

Comments

[anyeone.livejournal.com]

This sickens me, makes me angry with all the hypocrites who want to protect "traditional marriage" but wouldn't be in favor of dowries, arranged marriages, feet binding and spousal rape, and glad I don't live there anymore.

I hope the people who voted for this hateful amendment (including most of my deranged family) have their own rights taken away. You'd think that a family of intermarried Jews would have a bit more sense, but no...

[shannon_a]

I'm just waiting for the vengeful anti-Mormon proposition to hit the books. It seems inevitable.