Word: legalism
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...creating equality throughout the state. The California Supreme Court cited both the constitutional right to marry and the right to equal protection under the law as reasons for expanding the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples. Although California civil unions previously provided same-sex couples with similar legal benefits to marriage, using different terminology to distinguish between same and different-sex couples clearly violated equal protection laws. We applaud the Court for recognizing this violation, and for choosing to address it. Some criticize the Court for overruling California’s ban on gay marriage when voters...
Although gay marriage has been legal in Massachusetts for over four years, members of the Harvard community still rejoiced at Friday’s announcement that California’s Supreme Court had made a similar decision and said they were cognizant of its profound implications. Harvard Law professor Laurence H. Tribe ’62, who teaches constitutional law, said of the ruling, “It’s certainly going to shake things up, now that Massachusetts isn’t out on such a limb.” But Tribe, who is also a former clerk...
...decision? According to the Court, the right to “establish… an officially recognized and protected family.” But stated in the opinion, California already recognizes domestic partnerships between same-sex couples that give them “virtually all of the same substantive legal benefits and privileges… [as] a married couple.” Same-sex couples already have the same hospital visitation and inheritance rights as opposite-sex couples. The right in question here is simply a matter of nomenclature: the right for one’s union to be called...
...argue that domestic partnerships carry the same substantive legal rights as marriages do is not to argue that the gay rights movement should stop working to bring about legal recognition of gay marriage. Not only will the legal recognition of gay marriage make thousands of gay couples happy, but the acceptance of gay marriage in California could serve as a precedent for its acceptance in other states that do not already have provisions for domestic partnerships, thus helping expand the real legal rights of gay couples nationwide...
...legal victory was just the latest for increasingly visible gay and lesbian students (and their supportive straight friends) over the last decade. Gay straight alliances (GSAs) - extracurricular clubs that promote safety and tolerance in school - have grown from 200 in 1998 to more than 4,000 today. And students have won the right of GSAs to exist in more than a dozen court battles, even in relatively conservative regions like Salt Lake City, Utah and Orange County, Calif...