Legal News

As MA, CT and IA go, will CA?

By Richard Binder

The Iowa ruling on gay marriage has constitutional law experts and attorneys predicting an influence over California justices, who will rule on the future of Prop 8 in early June.

?This underscores that these are basic constitutional principles that these courts are underlining,? said David B. Cruz, a University of Southern California law professor and constitutional law expert.?I think our justices will certainly pay attention to the Iowa Supreme Court decision.?

?The fact that a same-sex couple can in three weeks be able to marry in Davenport, Iowa, but not in Palm Springs will be a wake-up call for people," said Marc Solomon, marriage director for Equality California. "I think it will cause people to think twice.?

Meanwhile, the California court's influence was evident in the decision that made Iowa the third state, after Massachusetts and Connecticut, to currently allow consenting adults to marry regardless of their partner's sex.

Frequently citing the California ruling, the Iowa justices said any law that denies equal treatment to a historically persecuted group, like homosexuals, is valid under the state Constitution only if it promotes an important, legitimate government goal. They said none of the goals cited in defense of the marriage law - tradition, protecting children, encouraging procreation - met that test.

Click here for more, and here for a national look at this ongoing issue.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on April 06, 2009 (boomark / email).