White House wants Prop. 8 overturned

White House wants Prop. 8 overturned


President Obama joined the legal battle for same-sex marriage Thursday, telling the U.S. Supreme Court that a California law limiting marriage to male-female couples serves no legitimate purpose and is based on "impermissible prejudice." "Proposition 8, by depriving same-sex couples of the right to marry, denies them the dignity, respect and stature accorded similarly situated opposite-sex couples under state law," Obama's Justice Department said in written arguments to the court. Because California allows same-sex couples to form domestic partnerships but withholds the social status of marriage, the department said, Prop. 8 violates the constitutional guarantee of equal protection of the laws. None of the purposes declared by the ballot measure's defenders - promoting "responsible procreation," reaffirming the traditional definition of marriage and proceeding with caution on divisive social issues - serve an important government interest or would be advanced by excluding gays and lesbians from marriage, administration lawyers argued. Federal intervention"No precedent or established constitutional precept justifies federal intervention into this sensitive democratic process," the measure's sponsors, a conservative religious coalition called Protect Marriage, said in a filing Jan. 22.

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