Judicial Overreach

By Hugh Hewitt

As disappointed supporters of same-sex marriage in California continue on their unprecedented campaign to intimidate the majority of voters who favored retaining the traditional definition of marriage, attention is shifting to the California Supreme Court's decision to hear a challenge to the successful amendment.

Even if--as is expected--the Court upholds the voters' decision to amend the California Constitution, the California Supreme Court should use the opportunity to revisit the vast overreach it engaged in last May when it declared sexual orientation to be a "suspect classification" just like race and religious beliefs. The 4-3 majority's radical intervention into law-making unleashed a bitter and deeply divisive tumult that had not previously marked the state's gradual evolution of its laws to reflect public opinion's measured and nuanced views towards its gay and lesbian citizens.

The court should humbly admit its error and restore the constitutional standards it trampled last year.