Prop 8: too soon to celebrate too much
Yesterday was a huge day for gay rights advocates, as the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals voted that California’s Prop 8 is unconstitutional. But this doesn’t mean the war is over.
For one thing, the case will almost certainly be appealed, but it’s not certain whether the Supreme Court will grant review. Even if it does, the vote will very likely be divided and could come down to just one person. Either way, yesterday’s decision is not necessarily final in any way.
For a second thing, the decision in this case was written extremely narrowly. The decision did not say that denying same-sex couples the right to marry was fundamentally unconstitutional; it simply ruled that because Prop 8 overturned a previous ruling that granted a right, taking that right away was unconstitutional. This does not set a precedent for other states in ways we might have liked.
We’ve still got a long way to go, but every single step matters. Yesterday was a big one, and they’ll only get more important from here.
