Judges in Prop 8 case threatened

A newly-formed group has issued a warning to California’s Supreme Court justices: Overturn Proposition 8 at your own peril.

The court will issue its ruling today on the constitutionality of Prop 8, the voter measure banning same-sex marriage in the state that was approved in November.

The group calling itself the American Civil Responsibilities Union held a news conference Monday on the steps of the court to announce plans to launch a statewide effort to recall any state of the justices who vote to overturn Proposition 8.

“We believe homosexuality in all its manifestations is an unfortunate abnormality,” the group said in a statement distributed to the news media.

“However, we wish it understood that we fully support alternative civil unions between like sexes. As registered `domestic partnerships,’ they should have all the state rights and responsibilities that are assumed in traditional marriages,” the statement said.

The organization was formed by Howard Garber who started “Californians For A Responsible Supreme Court,” in the 1980s.

That group succeeded in having Chief Justice Rose Bird recalled from the state Supreme Court because of her opposition to the death penalty.

Monday night, hundreds of gay marriage supporters filled San Francisco’s Grace Episcopal Cathedral for a prayer service conducted by representatives of more than 40 Christian, Jewish and Buddhist denominations.

Whichever way the court rules, LGBT activists and their supporters will take to the streets on Tuesday following the ruling.

The marches will take place throughout the state. Organizers say they will be celebratory if the court rules in their favor and protests if Prop 8 is upheld.

Waiting for the decision “has been an absolutely gut-wrenching experience,” Molly McKay, spokesperson for Marriage Equality USA told The Associated Press.

“As Californians, we are all under tremendous strain worrying about the economy, our jobs and our families,” McKay said. “On top of that, gay families have been living for months with the fear that the court will allow a bare majority of voters to strip gay and lesbian families of their constitutional protections and eliminate our marriages - or just as bad, eliminate new couples’ ability to get married.”

Prop 8 was passed by voters by a slim 52 percent.

The American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights immediately filed lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the vote. They were joined by additional suits by the cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles and a legal opinion by California Attorney General Jerry Brown.

For the court there are three issues to be determined: Is Proposition 8 invalid because it constitutes a revision of, rather than an amendment to, the California Constitution; Does Proposition 8 violate the separation of powers doctrine under the California Constitution; and If Proposition 8 is not unconstitutional, what is its effect, if any, on the 18,000 marriages of same-sex couples performed before the adoption of Proposition 8?

Two separate groups are not taking any chances should the court fail to overturn Prop 8 and are preparing voter measures to overturn it in 2010.

The California Secretary of State has given the group Yes on Equality until Aug. 17 to collect the nearly 700,000 signatures needed to qualify its initiative for the 2010 ballot. It would ask voters to repeal Prop 8. The other, by two college students, would strike the word “marriage” from all state laws.