Should We Let Prop 8 Stand Until a Federal Court Decides It’s Unconstitutional?

California Attorney General Jerry Brown may find Proposition 8 to be a violation of the U.S. Constitution, but his answer to Perry v. Schwarzenegger also includes this recommendation: Don’t let a federal court block Prop 8, at least not yet. How come?

Because if the issue is decided by a federal judge in Perry v. Schwarzenegger before the federal appeals process finishes up in San Francisco, California’s gays may actually find themselves with fewer rights at the end of all this.

U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker scheduled a hearing for next month in Perry v. Schwarzenegger to help decide whether an injunction to stay Prop 8 (and disavow the California State Supreme Court’s upholding of the law) should be considered. A.G. Brown says no — not until Ted Olson and David Boies’s federal challenge (on the grounds of violating the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment) is cleared up.