Equal Justice Under The Law

From the website of the Equal Justice Society, more details on the legal challenge to Proposition 8, which is being brought by groups also including the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the California NAACP and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.

Civil rights groups today filed a petition with the California Supreme Court to stop the enactment of Proposition 8 because it would mandate discrimination against a minority group and did not follow the process required for fundamental revisions to the California Constitution.

In the petition, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Equal Justice Society, California NAACP and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. argue that in order to protect the fundamental rights of all Californians, a higher standard is required to overturn the right to marry. Minority communities cannot be stripped of their fundamental rights by a simple majority vote.

"We would be making a grave mistake to view Proposition 8 as just affecting the LGBT community," said Eva Paterson, president of the Equal Justice Society. "If the Supreme Court allows Proposition 8 to take effect, it would represent a threat to the rights of people of color and all minorities."

No, it's worse than that. It basically means no one is safe from the tyranny of the 50%-plus-one.

It establishes a horrifying precedent: an abridgment of civil rights, rights already found to exist in the state Constitution by the state Supreme Court, can be enacted by simple majority vote.

Just think where this leads.

Suppose (may the gods preserve us) that a major California city suffers a terrorist attack by Muslim extremists. What's to stop a replay of Executive Order 9022 and the rounding up of all middle eastern immigrants and their families, but this time enacted by the voter initiative of a terrorized populace?

Or just as plausibly, an attack by domestic right-wing extremists could result in rounding up all citizens with any racist affiliations (along with a voter-approved law monitoring all Internet traffic to facilitate locating anyone who ever looked at a Stromfront website.) And while I might find those people and their beliefs reprehensible, I don't want it possible for a simple majority of voters to strip the civil rights away from anyone, not even skinhead assholes. It's too horrible a precedent to set.

[h/t to Pam Spaulding for the link]