Courage Campaign Condemns California Supreme Court for Refusal to Expedite Prop. 8 Hearing
Calling for 9th Circuit to Lift Prop. 8 Stay, Rick Jacobs blasts State’s high court for putting “summer vacation before the lives of thousands of California families”
Los Angeles: The California Supreme Court today denied a motion to expedite its hearing on whether or not the Proponents of Proposition 8 have legal standing to defend the law before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The motion, filed by Prop. 8 Trial Plaintiff’s attorneys David Boies and Ted Olson, would have moved up the scheduled hearing date on this matter from September 2011, to May 2011.
In recent days, the Courage Campaign has publicly disclosed the stories of hundreds of LGBT families who face irreparable harm as a result of continuing legal wrangling and a court ordered stay delaying enforcement of last year’s U.S. District Court finding that Prop. 8 is unconstitutional.
In Response to the California Supreme Court’s refusal to expedite the case, Courage Campaign Chairman and Founder Rick Jacobs has issued the following statement:
“Every minute of state sanctioned discrimination is a minute too long. The California Supreme Court’s decision to put its own summer vacation plans before the lives of thousands of California families is an outrage, and it must not be allowed to stand.
Thousands of loving couples have waited decades for the chance to exercise their constitutionally protected right to the recognition and security that only comes with marriage. Now, while these same families see a light at the end of their long struggle for equality, the courts are dithering, and hundreds of these same families are facing new struggles like terminal illness and the prospect of never---no matter what the eventual outcome of this case---being able to exercise the freedoms they have sought for so long.
With Proposition 8 already ruled unconstitutional in federal court, it is imperative that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals immediately lift the stay on enforcement of this decision so that families like Riverside’s Derence Kernek and Ed Phillips---together for 40 years but now waging a battle against Alzheimer’s Disease--are able to marry before it’s too late. I challenge the California Supreme Court—or any court for that matter—to tell Derence or Ed that they have not yet earned that right.”
