John

Acting Governor Maldonado:  File the Appeal Today!

Today is a huge deadline in the fight over traditional marriage. Last month, Judge Vaughn Walker, Chief Judge of the federal district court in San Francisco, ruled that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional.  It was a truly amazing decision by a lower court judge, because it not only failed to distinguish but did not even bother citing binding precedent of both the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States itself, both of which have previously held that limiting marriage to opposite-sex unions is a perfectly rational and legitimate governmental purpose.

The Proponents of the Initiative immediately filed an appeal, of course, but here’s the rub, and one last card of mischievousness up Judge Walker’s sleeve. Denying the Proponents motion to put the ruling on hold until it could be consider by the Court of Appeals, Judge Walker asserted that, in his view, it was unlikely that the Proponents even had the legal authority to bring the appeal on their own, in the absence of an appeal by any of the government defendants.

Yet Attorney General Jerry Brown, who has the sworn duty to enforce the laws of this State, and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has the sworn duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, have both refused to defend the initiative and the more than 7 million California voters who voted for it.  They have even refused to file a simple piece of paper that would ensure that the Proponents of the Initiative could continue its defense, without concern over this important jurisdictional issue.

Well, the Governor is now out of the country, and under our State’s Constitution, the full powers of the office reside temporarily with Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado. The Notice of Appeal has to be filed TODAY, and Abel Maldonado is in a position to show some leadership, adhere to his own ethical and legal duties of office, and guarantee that this important initiative receives the full considering by the appellate courts that it deserves.

It is not as though Maldonado is going to be able to avoid the issue, one way or the other. His opponent in November is San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome, the poster child for homosexual marriage.  But this is a win-win situation for Maldonado, as both Proponents and Opponents of Proposition 8 should want the Notice of Appeal filed. If the Court ultimately holds that the Proponents do not have standing to bring the appeal, that decision would also call into question the legitimacy of Judge Vaughn Walker’s ruling below. After all, the government defendants failed to defend the initiative there, as well. It is for this reason, I suspect, that even the Los Angeles Times came out last week urging the Governor and the Attorney General to file a Notice of Appeal. And of course the Proponents are anxious to have the case reviewed by the Court of Appeals and ultimately the Supreme Court, confident that Judge Walker’s failure to follow existing precedent and common sense will be reversed.

So, help Abel Maldonado do the right thing. Call him TODAY to say you support him filing the Notice of Appeal. His office is 916-445-8994. His campaign office is 831-759-2577. Call Now. Call Every Hour. And check my website, EastmanForAG.com, for updates throughout the day!  I’ll post there an announcement as soon as he’s filed the Notice of Appeal. And we have also posted cell phone numbers there, in case you can’t get through to the main office lines.

In other news, our Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence filed an important amicus curiae (that’s “friend of the court”) brief in the Arizona immigration case, strongly arguing that Arizona has the constitutional authority to help enforce federal immigration law and protect its citizens from the onslaught of illegal immigration.  You can read the brief here.
And finally, we made some more progress on our debt retirement efforts this past week. But we’ve still got a ways to go. Please donate if you can.