Two lawyers who squared off in the legal battle over the 2000 US presidential election teamed up on Wednesday to challenge California's gay marriage ban in a move that, if successful, would allow same-sex couples to wed anywhere in the United State.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of two same-sex California couples barred from marrying under the voter-approved ban known as Proposition 8, puts them at odds with gay rights advocates who see a federal court challenge as too risky.
Lawyers Ted Olson and David Boies, who opposed each other in the Bush vs Gore US supreme Court case that put George W. Bush in the White House, said that gay people who cannot marry were turned into second-class citizens by Proposotion 8 in violation of the US Constitution. Olson Represented Bush and Boies represented Vice-President Al Gore in the case that settled the disputed 2000 election.
If this lawsuit prevails, it would establish the right of gay couples to marry as the law of the land, upending laws in many US states that specifically prohibit same-sex marriage.
Five of the 50 US states have legalised gay marriage. Opponents, including many religious conservatives, see gay marriage as a threat to the "Traditional family."
California's Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld Proposition 8, which defines marriage exclusively as between a man and a woman, as a valid amendment to the state's constitution. The same court last May struck down a state law prohibiting same-sex marriage, opening the way for an estimated 18,000 gay couples to wed before the proposition was approved by California voters in november. - Reuters.
Article Source : theSun
