To the Editor:
I have some objections to the information and views contained in the September 10 column "What Brown can learn from Prop 8" by Terrence George '13.
In my opinion, George's column misrepresents the legal basis of Judge Walker's ruling in the recent Perry v. Schwarzenegger case regarding the constitutionality of California's Proposition 8. George writes that Walker's decision "declared California's law in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, citing a lack of legitimacy given its basis in ‘private moral(s)'." He then goes on to assert that private morals are a perfectly legitimate basis for law, and that the will of the majority should prevail in cases such as this.
However, Walker's decision was significantly more nuanced than George acknowledged in his column. Walker specifically found that the law did not satisfy the requirements of "strict scrutiny", the standard for testing the constitutionality of a law that infringes what has been deemed a fundamental right. (The U.S. Supreme Court has previously recognized the right to marriage as a fundamental right, so this test is applicable to the case.) To meet the conditions of strict scrutiny, a law "must be justified by a compelling governmental interest", a condition which Walker ruled was not satisfied by Proposition 8. Thus, Walker's ruling was deeply rooted in legal precedent and procedure, rather than merely "about [Walker's] own urge to castigate the people of California for their ‘antiquated' morality," as George asserts.
I also object to George's overall conclusion, which is, as I understand it, that "gay marriage is wrong for California … because the people of California said so." This statement ignores an important function of government, which is to protect minorities from abuse at the hands of the majority. Just as in the case of interracial marriage half a century ago, the legal principles underlying our democratic system sometimes need to overrule the will of the majority to ensure the full protection of law for all citizens.
Nicholas Gaya '14
Sept. 11
