San Francisco city attorney Dennis
Herrera has condemned an attempt to reinstate Proposition 8,
California's now ended gay marriage ban.
On Friday, Protect Marriage, the group
that sponsored the 2008 constitutional amendment which defined
marriage as a heterosexual union, asked the California Supreme Court
to reinstate the ban.
(Related: Gay
marriage opponents ask California court to reinstate Proposition 8.)
Herrera criticized the move, calling it
“desperate.”
“This motion is a desperate
obstruction tactic used in the vain hope of pursuing an
unconstitutional agenda,” said Herrera in a statement. “The
opponents of the freedom to marry have chosen to ignore the Supremacy
Clause of the Constitution, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, and the
well-settled California marriage case of Lockyer v. San Francisco,
which they themselves celebrated at the time. Their motion has
essentially no chance to succeed. The most basic concepts of
American law tell us that a state court cannot and will not overrule
the federal judiciary. The citizens of California are left wondering
when these people will realize that, having lost the moral struggle
years and years ago, they have now lost the legal struggle as well.
Marriage equality is now the law in the State of California, and will
remain so from this point onward. Together we will soon see the day
when it is the law all across America.”