Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will not submit a legal brief to the California Supreme Court arguing for the overturn of Proposition 8, the voter initiative that bans same-sex marriage, nor will he join a group of state lawmakers in their brief despite making statements he believes the court should declare the measure illegal.
Appearing on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” Schwarzenegger said that he believes marriage is between opposite-sex partners, “but I don’t want to ever force my will on anyone.”
But he rejected a call to enter the legal challenge to Prop 8.
A day after voters agreed to amend the constitution to bar same-sex marriage three separate notices were filed with the high court arguing the proposition was illegal because it conflicted with existing portions of the constitution.
The American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights filed a writ petition before the California Supreme Court on Wednesday, a preliminary move to a suit. They were the lead groups that successfully argued the original marriage case before the court.
The second notice came from Dennis Herrera the attorney for the City of San Francisco. The third was filed by Los Angeles attorney Gloria Allred on behalf of a couple married in that city.
The petitions charge that Proposition 8 is invalid because the initiative process was improperly used in an attempt to undo the constitution’s core commitment to equality for everyone. They also say that Prop 8 improperly attempts to prevent the courts from exercising their essential constitutional role of protecting the equal protection rights of minorities.
Last week Democratic state legislators filed a “friend of the court” brief supporting the challenge.
The Republican governor on Sunday told ABC that the state law banning same-sex marriage, which the California Supreme Court overturned this spring, was akin to the legal battle over interracial marriage. In 1948 the state high court declared a ban on interracial marriage unconstitutional.
“So the Supreme Court, you know, I think ought to go and look at that again. And we’ll go back to the same decision. … I think that they will. And I think that the important thing now is to resolve this issue in that way,” he told Stephanopoulos.
Schwarzenegger also said that he will meet this week with Attorney General Jerry Brown, a Democrat, over the legal issues involved with the estimated 18,000 gay marriages already conducted in California.
