[This was recoded as a free flow thought process, there was no scripting of any kind as will be obvious shortly]
Ok, we seem to be recording...
Hi, this is Robert from Spiritgeek.com.
A little commentary about something coming up in a little more than a half hour.
For those of you that don't know, I live in California, so the California Supreme Court in about a half hour, 45 minutes, is supposed to post their response to Proposition 8.
So once again, the California Supreme Court is going to end up in history one way or another. So if.. If they happen to choose to uphold Prop 8, it raises one question where if they happen to overturn it, it raises another question.
So lets start with the one that I'm hoping for, being that I am gay, that they overturn it.
If they overturn it, then people like myself would be allowed to marry our partners and we would have all the rights and privileges of a civil contract called marriage in this country that heterosexual couples have.
Now there are those on the Conservative Right who say I shouldn't have those rights, that that is a special institution reserved for only heterosexuals.
Well, for those who claim its a religious institution, the simple fact is that the religious institution is only a ceremony that takes place in a church; all the rights and privileges, obligations and responsibilities too, don't think I'm forgetting them, those are put into place by a Civil Contract and the State should not have the right or the privilege of deciding who can and cannot enter into that Civil Contract. So, that's one place where they may go and sooner or later that question is going to get raised because the simple fact is that Marriage isn't a Religious Institution, the only part of it that is; is the ceremony in a Church.
So what happens if they overturn it, I mean don't overturn it, that raises another interesting question...
Now, the proponents of Prop 8 say "we have the voting will of the public and the Justices should not be making decisions on it."
But what if the voting will of the public is just wrong and is unconstitutional which in this case, I don't know how this bill was allowed and got on. We've had many ballot measure that were determined to be illegal or improper before voting and taken off the ballot. Most of these thing were "Prop 82 -- REMOVED," I'm choosing a number.
Now the question becomes, if they don't overturn it, if they uphold, that Prop 8 stands, here is a law that was written, passed by the voters albeit, Prop 22 I believe, found by the Supreme Court as being in violation of the Constitution and hence struck down as a violation of the "Equal Protection Clause". This exact same law, there is not one word of difference in Prop 8 and Prop 22, the only difference is where in the code it's stated. This law has been found to be unconstitutional. I don't know how it made it on the ballot, I don't know how it made it this far and I don't know how it can be upheld.
If it is upheld, it raises an interesting question; if the majority decides that something that they pass as a law and is found to be unconstitutional, if by inserting it it becomes constitutional, what is to stop the rights of inter-racial marriage, women's vote and all these questions.
People go, "Oh, you are going to far," but you know something, it's not that hard to believe. If you can take a law that has been found to be in this condition and then put it into the constitution and say it's valid this really opens up a big question. [If it had been up to the voters years ago, those in this country of African descent would still be slaves – sometimes, the will of the public is neither correct or just, we are human and make mistakes]
So in about 40 minutes, the California State Supreme Court is supposed to put their decision on-line. Let's see what happens and let's see which question they wish to go down with for eternity because I guarantee you that this is going to be documented one way or the other...
One little footnote...
To the people who are, quote unquote, "protecting marriage" who say they will take this to the Federal Supreme Court, go back to your civics class because the Federal Supreme court does not have the right to overrule the State Supreme Court in this type of matter. People in this country consistently forget that we are a union of 50 independent states and that the Federal Government does not have the power to overrule the States. To say otherwise is to forget you history.
Anyway, so, it's the 26th of May and getting close to D-Day for the Supreme Court, keep an eye on the website that will be down bellow [http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions] and we will see what happens...
Have a really blessed day and no matter what happens, know that even if you don't love same-sex couples, you don't have to love them but you do have to acknowledge that you don't have the right to decree who they can enter into a contract with. That would be like Joe's Auto Body Shops being told they cannot go into a joint business venture with the Fiat Dealership because they're an independent body shop and the other is Fiat. Sounds stupid but believe me it is really the same thing.
Anyway, have a really good day and lets see what happens, we'll talk later... Bye bye!
