Chief Judge Vaughan Walker today overturned the will of seven million California voters by declaring Prop 8 “unconstitutional.”  Although the decision was not unexpected by the Prop 8 Legal Defense team, Judge Walker’s opinions are especially strident.

As a preemptive act, the Prop 8 defense attorneys sought a motion to “stay” – attempting to keep same-sex marriages from taking place – in the event that Walker overruled Prop 8.  Giving all sides until end-of-day Friday, August 6, to respond to the motion, Walker has issued a temporary “stay”.  At some point after that, Judge Walker will decide whether same-sex marriages should proceed in California.  The legal defense team may need to seek immediate review from higher courts of appeal in order to keep new same-sex marriages from taking place.

Within Walker’s 136 page written opinion were statements that the public communications of the “Yes on 8” campaign “insinuated” that parents and children should fear same-sex marriage and homosexuals.  This interpretation by Walker is absurd.  

Following are just a few of Judge Walker’s opinions:

• No credible evidence supports a finding that an individual may, through conscious decision, therapeutic intervention or any other method, change his or her sexual orientation.
• Same-sex couples are identical to opposite-sex couples in the characteristics relevant to the ability to form successful marital unions.
• Proposition 8 does not affect the First Amendment rights of those opposed to marriage for same-sex couples.

Walker used testimony from the plaintiffs’ witnesses to affirm his personal beliefs, and apparently slept through the cross-examination by the defense attorneys, who proved false every piece of “research” – like the statements above – these alleged expert witnesses put forth.

Thank God for the process of appeal, as the Prop 8 Legal Defense team will immediately seek consideration by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and likely then by the U.S. Supreme Court.  Please pray for smooth pathways through this process.

And pray also for a permanent “stay” of Judge Walker’s decision until the appellate courts have completed their consideration of Perry v Schwarzenegger.

Links: Commentary by Dr. John Eastman