Calif. law professors call gay marriage ban campaign “deceptive”

Nicole C. Brambila • The Desert Sun • October 29, 2008

Opponents of a same-sex marriage ban released a statement today signed by more than 50 California law professors debunking the claims of those who support traditional marriage saying the campaign is “deceptive and misleading.”

“As teachers of the law we feel an obligation to speak out when claims are made about the law that are simply and clearly false,” Pam Karlan, the Kenneth and Harle Montgomery professor of Public Interest Law at Stanford Law School, said in a news release.

The Yes on 8 campaign, supported by ProtectMarriage.com which gathered the necessary signatures to place the proposed amendment on the ballot, disagrees with the scholars.

“Our campaign yesterday challenged Jack O’Connell and No on 8 to a televised debate to settle this once and for all,” said Sonja Eddings Brown, a Yes on 8 spokeswoman.

Proposition 8 is a voter initiative measure to amend the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage. In May, California Supreme Court justices ruled 4-3 that the same-sex marriage ban voters approved in 2000 was unconstitutional.

These scholars concluded that Proposition 8
• discriminates against gays and lesbians
• would have no effect on a church’s tax exemption
• would not effect education or parental rights

“We recognize that people of integrity can differ in their views of the meaning of marriage,” a news release said the scholars wrote.

“But people who want to take the right to marry away from same-sex couples should not rely on misleading claims about the current state of the law or about what Proposition 8 would do.”

Yes on Prop 8 ads on TV and radio spots have claimed that if the measure does not pass, kindergarten students will be compelled to learn about same-sex marriage and churches could lose their tax exempt status.

Proposition 8 supporters received fodder for their claims earlier this month after a public charter school took a first grade class, with parental permission, to San Francisco City Hall where their teacher married her partner.

The group also sites a 2007 Massachusetts court decision that dismissed a civil rights lawsuit brought by the parents of a second-grader who read a book about a prince marrying another prince in class without the school district providing parental notification.

“Parents know,” Brown said. “They’ve seen it in Massachusetts. They can see it happening in California. We know this is they’re long-term agenda.”

The California Teachers Association, the California School Boards Association and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell have all maintained Proposition 8 has nothing to do with public school education.

The No on 8 statement was signed by 59 law professors including Erwin Chemerinsky, the founding Dean of the University of California School of Law and Kathleen Sullivan, former Stanford Law School Dean.