Cowardice in California

Michael Balter 5/26/2009 01:04:00 PM Politics
The California Supreme Court, by upholding the Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage but allowing the 18,000 people married before its passage to stay married, has now stomped on the very equal protection principles that it upheld in its original decision to allow gay marriage. If that sentence seems twisted and tongue-tied, so is the logic of the Court's cowardly opinion today.

More on cowardly decision. Los Angeles Times columnist Tim Rutten spells out chapter and verse about why six (out of seven) "clearly nervous justices" turned out a "morally incoherent decision."

More judicial news. According to the New York Times, Republicans are cogitating over whether an all-out fight against the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court would get them in more trouble with Hispanics than they already are. Why, um, no, why would they think that? :-)
Michael Balter

Posted by Michael Balter

I have been a working journalist for more than 40 years, beginning in Los Angeles as an investigative reporter and then in Paris as a travel, food, and science writer. For more than 20 years I have covered anthropology and archaeology writer for Science, Audubon, Scientific American, SAPIENS, and other publications. I have also covered sexual misconduct for The Verge, Scientific American, and others; I write about mental health, especially schizophrenia; and I engage in occasional media criticism. I returned to the USA in October 2017 after 30 years in Paris, and now live in the New York City area, where I currently teach journalism at City College of New York (I previously taught journalism at Boston University and New York University.) For more about me and what I do, copies of my articles, information about my book, and other goodies, please visit MY WEB SITE

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1 Comments

Anne Gilbert said…
I don't know if this decision is "cowardly", exactly. What it is, is, um, very "legalistic". And I'm guessing that it will be overturned sometime in the not too distant future, one way or another.
Anne G
May 26, 2009 at 7:13 PM
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