'Marriage is a right which extends fundamentally to all persons, whether they're capable of producing children, incarcerated or behind in their child-support payments. ...
'Why don't those same values apply to gay couples and lesbian couples loving one another?'
-- Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker (below right), U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, questioning counsel for proponents of Proposition 8, the initiative that amended California's Constitution to outlaw same-sex marriages. Walker's query came in the course of yesterday's closing arguments in the federal trial that commenced 6 months ago at the U.S. courthouse in San Francisco. Plaintiffs in Perry v. Schwarzenegger -- 
among them the couple above, Kristin Perry and Sandra Stier of Berkeley -- allege that this new provision of the state constitution violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. (credit for 2009 AP photo by Jeff Chiu) (Prior IntLawGrrls posts on events in California here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here).The case is now submitted, and litigants await Walker's decision.
among them the couple above, Kristin Perry and Sandra Stier of Berkeley -- allege that this new provision of the state constitution violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. (credit for 2009 AP photo by Jeff Chiu) (Prior IntLawGrrls posts on events in California here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here).The case is now submitted, and litigants await Walker's decision.
