Prop 8 struck down in 2-1 decision; dissenting Mormon judge compares exclusion of gay couples to state's right to require VD tests, prohibit bestiality and incest

KTLA, Los Angeles, aired the most comprehensive,
brief report AKSARBENT saw.

On narrow constitutional grounds, two of the three members of a U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel overturned Prop 8. Judges Stephen Reinhardt and Michael Daly Hawkins, named to the court by Democratic presidents, declared Proposition 8 to be unconstitutional in California because it targeted a minority group and took away the right to marry in violation  of the Fourteenth Amendment and the equal protection clause of the U.S.  Constitution.
     Judge N. Randy Smith, appointed to the court by President George W. Bush, dissented, writing that governments have an interest in “a responsible procreation theory,  justifying the inducement of marital recognition only for opposite-sex  couples” because they are the only ones who can create children from  their union.

     Parroting disproved propaganda from NOM and other right wing groups, Smith declared, “The family structure of two committed biological parents -– one man  and one woman -– is the optimal partnership for raising children."

     He added that:

...states may legitimately prohibit bigamy, incest,  bestiality and other sexual relationships condemned by society, as well  as impose age limits for marriage or require tests for venereal disease  without running afoul of constitutional rights.

Prop 8 decision dissenter, Norman Randy Smith,
graduate of Brigham Young University Law
School, compared prohibiting gay marriage to
constitutionality of venereal disease tests and
prohibition of incest and bestiality. Smith lives
in Pocatella, Idaho.

     “Gays and lesbians are not a suspect or quasi-suspect class” and  therefore aren’t entitled to the courts’ more vigilant scrutiny of laws  that affect them, Smith said, citing a 22-year-old 9th Circuit ruling.

     He also cited Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s dissent in  another landmark Supreme Court ruling on gay rights in 2003 in saying  that governments have long sought to regulate behavior considered  “immoral and unacceptable.”

Legal highlights of the decision are here, as well as a comprehensive Prop 8 timeline

Best sarcastic quote from today's prop 8 decision:

Had Marilyn Monroe’s film been called How to Register a Domestic Partnership with a Millionaire, it would not have conveyed the same meaning as did her famous movie, even though the underlying drama for same-sex couples is no different. More interesting excerpts from the 128-page decision are here.

Here is the entire decision:
Prop 8 Ruling