Word: courtelis
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While California may be host to the most spectacular battle over marriage equality, it's anything but a new phenomenon. In the 10 years since reaction to gay-friendly court rulings sent Hawaiians to the polls to change the state constitution to forbid gay marriage, 29 other states have had similar votes. In what must be one of the most successful electoral runs in history, marriage traditionalists have won a remarkable 29 times out of 30 - and often by margins that political strategists regard as near mythical: 78% in Louisiana; 76% in Oklahoma; and four years ago, fully...
Californians who embraced the powerful language of the supreme court decision are hoping that the Arizona win signals a cresting of the electoral push back against gay-friendly court rulings. But it's still too early to tell. A string of opinion polls shows that Californians are ready to embrace gay marriage. Of seven bipartisan, statewide polls cited by the Initiative & Referendum Institute at the University of Southern California law school since May, only one gives the advantage to supporters of Prop. 8. But that poll, by SurveyUSA, also happens to be the most recent; released...
...ballot-box battles can be dispiriting for gays, who have otherwise grown used to hailing spectacular victories in the courts. Three state supreme courts - in Massachusetts, California and, just last week, Connecticut - have ruled that gays have the fundamental right to marry. Those courts have ruled that not even civil unions with all the legal trimmings of marriage can compensate. Gay-rights activists hope that Iowa's high court, will hear arguments in December and then rule as soon as January 2009 on a lower court's decision in favor of gay marriage, will bring judicial victories in state high...
...Iowa, the supreme court hasn't even ruled yet, but already a similar voter push is underway. Conservatives are urging gay-marriage foes to not leave anything to chance: they're backing a group of judicial candidates that could utterly remake the majority on the high court...
Meanwhile, with every court victory comes an electoral backlash. When a divided Connecticut Supreme Court ruled last week that gays have the right to marry, it took a far more cautious approach than California's Chief Justice Ronald George did in May. George issued a thundering declaration of gay rights, ruling that any law that discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation will from now on be met with the same strict scrutiny typically reserved for laws involving race or religion. By contrast, Connecticut's Justice Richard Palmer writes that "our conventional understanding of marriage must yield to a more...