In Twilight Regalia

I get a lot of legal junk mail at work for my attorneys, much of which they pitch immediately.  This, however, was worth the tree it was printed on.  Emphasis and bracked explanations are mine, and the segments are presented out of their original sequence, for brevity’s sake.
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Article Excerpts by Jeff Immerman, Esq., Cotkin & Collins, Los Angeles

 
“…From the time of the California Supreme Court’s May 2008 decision in The Marriage Cases [the California Supreme Court Ruling enabling same-sex couples to marry] to just prior to the voters’ approval of Proposition 8 in November 2008, approximately 18,000 same-sex couples were legally married in California…. Once married, some of these couples for example may have entered into contracts and transactions between themselves and third parties affecting or changing the characterization of property from separate to community and have incurred substantial community debts.

While retroactive application of Proposition 8 does not affect the marital status of heterosexual couples, it will substantially impair the marital status and related property, financial, and parental vested rights and responsibilities of same-sex couples who became legally married in reliance on the rights recognized by the California Supreme Court in the The Marriage Cases.”

…”If Proposition 8 is immune from judicial review, persons who disagree for whatever reason with the judicial branch’s future determination(s) that a legislative enactment unlawfully infringes upon an inalienable constitutional right of a discrete class of persons, will in the future seek to circumvent constitutional limits through the initialive process.  Unless prevented from doing so, such persons will resort to the non-deliberative initiative measure process in an attempt to resurrect a statute already found to be unconstitutional.  Such a scheme will undermine the constitutional rights of California citizens and will also under the system of checks and balances upon which our governmental system is based. …

…Proposition 8 . . .will, if upheld, cut deeply and permanently the inalienable rights of same-sex couples and the power of the judicial branch to protect, preserve, and safeguard the inalienable rights of California citizens.”

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