Prop. 8 Trial Concludes
Attorneys address the goals of marriage and what it means to be American
Arguments in the constitutional challenge to California's same-sex marriage ban concluded Wednesday afternoon as one of the attorneys defending Proposition 8 made his closing statements, which were then rebutted by the lawyer for the other side.
Charles Cooper told U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker that marriage has historically been defined as a relationship between a man and a woman, because it is a union based on the goal of conceiving and raising biological children in wedlock. He argued that protecting this procreative definition of marriage is a critical concern.
“The marital relationship is fundamental to the existence and survival of the race,” Cooper said. “Without the marital relationship, your honor, society would come to an end.”
He also argued that it was in the best interests of the state to promote marriage as heterosexual to “channel” childbearing into biological family units and deter “irresponsible procreation.”
Walker, who interjected with questions throughout, pressed Cooper about the credentials of one witness for the defense: David Blankenhorn. Cooper responded that he did not have that information, and requested a short break, which the judge granted.
When the arguments resumed, Cooper told the judge that same-sex unions would constitute a change to marriage—one which would “divorce the institution from its historical core procreative purpose.” That change, he said, would give rise to dangerous uncertainty.
“It could not be more rational for the people of California to say, ‘We aren't going to run that risk,’” he said.
In his rebuttal, Theodore B. Olson expressed skepticism about the government’s interest in procreation, saying that he doubted that “the state of California is in the marriage business in order to ‘channel’ us.”
To illustrate his point, Olson presented a hypothetical scenario in which the state decided that it wanted to curb procreation by ceasing to issue marriage licenses.
Olson told Judge Walker he thought it was time to establish marriage as a fundamental right that extended to gays and lesbians.
His voice breaking with emotion, Olson invoked a letter that Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote to his followers while he was held in a Birmingham jail, urging them not to wait to press for civil rights. Olson called the letter “the most compelling thing that I have read on that subject.”
Olson also reminded the judge that one of the two witnesses called to defend Prop. 8, David Blankenhorn, had testified earlier in the trial that allowing same-sex marriage would be “a victory for the worthy ideas of tolerance and inclusion,” and “a victory for, and another key expansion of, the American idea.”
“Mr. Blankenhorn is exactly right,” said Olson about the ban on same-sex marriage. “The day that we end that, we will be more American.”
That concluded the testimony and the trial. Judge Walker thanked everyone in the courtroom. “With that, the matter will be submitted,” he said.
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