all right. a few moments ago we talked to dan simon who is in the courthouse in san francisco waiting for a ruling on proposition eight. this is the voter-passed proposition that was going to ban gay marriage in california. well a judge issued a stay saying that that couldn t go into effect. he stated his reasons for it. and basically he said it didn t make sense and it wasn t legal. he issued a stay. well he struck it down. and then he issued a someday, because opponents of his ruling had said that he, they don t want people going and getting married if this thing could collapse on appeal. now he is ruling on the stay, deciding whether it s going to stay in place, whether it comes off. whether people can go and get married. it s a bit confusing. we have an expert who can straighten it all out. our legal analyst, jeffrey tu
if prop eight is upheld, it s in the that big a crisis because we ve essentially dealt with this problem before. judge vaughan walker in his unusual ruling said proposition eight fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men or lesbians for denial of a marriage license. indeed, the evidence shows that proposition eight does nothing more than enshrine in the california constitution, the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples. for those of us who are the exposed to voter propositions and the effect that they have, how does this compare to legislation that s passed by a legislature? if the voters have voted on this, where does the court come in in terms of determining whether it s fair or not? you know, as a legal matter, it makes no difference whether a law is passed by voter initiative or through the votes of legislators. the law is either constitutional or it s not. so the fact that it came from the voters really doesn t have
okay, today s world play is a little bit unusual. we re looking at 8. first up, proposition 8, we ve been hearing about this since 2008. that s when the ballot proposition was passed by california voters. it s fewer than 50 words long burke the 14 that you need to know are only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in california. simply put, a ban on gay marriage. a judge overturned prop 8 last week. any minute, he s expected to announce whether folks can start saying their vows or whether he s going to stay or put that on hold. the ruling until the appeals process is exhausted and that could take years. okay, the other story, section 8. formally it s the department of housing and urban development s housing choice voucher program. the vouchers are meant to help low income families, the elderly and the disabled afford a place to live in the private housing market. in other words, they don t limit
anticipation here. let s just review briefly how we got to this point. proposition 8, this was a voter-led initiative to define marriage between a man and a woman. passed by a narrow majority of voters, 52% to 48%. same-sex marriage supporters rushed to the courthouse to try to get this overturned. the trial took place all the way back in january. 2 1/2-week trial. then you got last week where the judge issued his ruling, striking down proposition 8, calling it unconstitutional. the judge put a stay on his own ruling. really, just until today to decide whether or not he will allow marriages to resume. we know that there are plenty of same-sex couples gathering at city halls and courthouses all across the country, trying to get married, literally today in event the judge lifts his own stay. and again, that s what we re waiting for the judge to decide. dan, the protestors out
the as we ve within reports, judge vaughn walker is deciding whether to lift a stay on his landmark decision to overturn california s landmark proposition 8. it sought to outlaw same-sex marriages. it was a vote that was supposed that the supporters of proposition 8 want the ruling to remain on hold while they appeal it. same-sex marriage advocates don t want it to be on hold. all of this brings me to jeffrey toobin. he s in anchorage, alaska. jeff, let s talk about this. this judge ruled on proposition 8. i want to read to my viewers