Republican lawmakers are urging
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to defend California's gay marriage
ban, Proposition 8.
Twenty-seven members of the Assembly's
Republican caucus wrote to Schwarzenegger asking the governor to
appeal a federal ruling that struck down Proposition 8 as
unconstitutional.
Schwarzenegger, a Republican, and
Attorney General Jerry Brown, a Democrat who is running for governor,
refused to defend the law and have said they would not file an
appeal.
“It does not matter whether we, the
Attorney General, or you supported or opposed Proposition 8, or
whether we believe it should or should not be the law of California,”
the lawmakers wrote. “The people of the state of California
themselves decided this issue on November 4, 2008.”
“The initiative was upheld by the
California Supreme Court as a valid exercise of the people's
initiative authority under our state Constitution. One elected
federal court judge cannot be allowed to void such a decision, let
alone do so without recourse to appeal.”
Schwarzenegger is also being pressured
to defend the law by the Christian-based legal group Pacific Justice
Institute, which
filed a lawsuit on Monday in the Third District Court of Appeals in
Sacramento to force Schwarzenegger and Brown, as representatives of
the state, to file an appeal.
Social conservatives are increasingly
worried that they'll lose their case on a technicality.
Proposition 8's sponsor, Protect
Marriage, a coalition of social conservative groups that includes the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons), the
California Catholic Conference and various evangelical churches,
intervened to defend the law after the suit's named defendants,
Schwarzenegger and Brown, refused.
But doubts have been raised about
whether the group has legal standing to appeal the ruling as ordinary
citizens.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in
San Francisco has put the decision on hold and scheduled oral
arguments for the second week in December.
The state has until September 11 to
file an appeal.