One step forward, one step back

Obama picks the first Latino to serve on the Supreme Court, 54 year old Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor:

Judge Sotomayor, 54, who has served for more than a decade on the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, based in New York City, would become the nation’s 111th justice, replacing David H. Souter, who is retiring after 19 years on the bench. Although Justice Souter was appointed by the first President George Bush, he became a mainstay of the liberal faction on the court, and so his replacement by Judge Sotomayor likely would not shift the overall balance of power.

But her appointment would add a second woman to the nine-member court and give Hispanics their first seat. Her life story, mirroring in some ways Mr. Obama’s own, would add a different complexion to the panel, fulfilling the president’s stated desire to add diversity of background to the nation’s highest tribunal.

Some political analysis from First Read.

AND IN CALIFORNIA, Proposition 8 is upheld, but those gays and lesbians who married before the constitutional ban was approved by the voters will remain married:

The 6-1 decision upholding Prop. 8 was issued by the same court that declared a year ago that a state law defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman violated the right to choose one's spouse and discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation.

Prop. 8 undid that ruling. The author of last year's 4-3 decision, Chief Justice Ronald George, said today that the voters were within their rights to approve a constitutional amendment redefining marriage to include only male-female couples.

"All political power is inherent in the people," George said, quoting the Declaration of Rights in the state Constitution. He said the voters' power to amend their Constitution is limited - and might not include a measure that, for example, deprived same-sex couples of the right to raise a family - but that Prop. 8 did not exceed those limits.

Under California's domestic-partner law and anti-discrimination statutes, the chief justice said, "same-sex couples continue to enjoy the same substantive core benefits ... as those enjoyed by opposite-sex couples, including the constitutional right to enter into an officially recognized and protected family relationship with the person of one's choice and to raise children."

The voters, he said, have added "the sole, albeit significant, exception that the designation of 'marriage' is ... now reserved for opposite-sex couples." That was within their authority, George said, and any further change can come only at the ballot box.

In dissent, Justice Carlos Moreno, who joined the majority in last year's decision, said today's ruling accepted the separate-but-equal treatment for gays and lesbians that the 2008 ruling rejected.

"Granting same-sex couples all of the rights enjoyed by opposite-sex couples, except the right to call their officially recognized and protected family relationship a marriage, still denies them equal treatment," Moreno said.

I didn't expect Proposition 8 to be overturned, by I have to say I am surprised by George's comments with respect to the power that people have to change their state constitutions. Banning marriage seems awfully close to limiting people's ability to raise a family which he suggested would be off limits. Hmm.

More from the ACLU.