CALIF. SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS BAN ON GAY MARRIAGE, DISCARDS EQUAL PROTECTION

How come equal protection under the law means nothing to the Calif. Supreme Court? So, voters can vote to deny equal protection and that vote trumps the Calif. Constitution guaranteeing every citizen equal treatment? I thought that was the purpose of the courts - to protect minority rights. However, I see that in Calif., we have a tyranny of the majority, to heck with the minority.

Ashley Surdin reports the developments on the WashPo web page today:

"Justice Carlos R. Moreno filed a dissenting opinion in the case, concluding that Proposition 8 is invalid because it is not a lawful amendment of the constitution, in effect altering the equal protection clause to deny same-sex couples equal treatment.

""Requiring discrimination against a minority group on the basis of a suspect classification strikes at the core of the promise of equality that underlies our California Constitution," Moreno wrote. The ruling, he argued, "not only allows same-sex couples to be stripped of the right to marry that this court recognized . . . it places at risk the state constitutional rights of all disfavored minorities.""