Experts cite legal precedence for Prop. 8 intervention

02/27/09 Orange County Register Total Buzz Blog:

Martin Wisckol, Politics reporter, writes that "[w]ithout opining on the merits of next week’s legal challenge to Proposition 8’s ban on gay marriage, two panels of legal experts at Chapman University this afternoon repeatedly cited instances where courts intervened to overturn laws."

"Do we really want minority rights swinging on majority sentiment?" said Pacific McGeorge Law School’s Michael Vitiello. "Maybe homosexuals, who’ve been abused so drastically for so long, are a minority group that merits court protection." Chapman University Law Professor Ronald L. Steiner also expressed concern about yielding to the "tyranny of the majority," especially one manipulated by well-funded special interests. But Brigham Young University law professor Lynn Wardle warned that "[t]he California Supreme Court has no more authority to amend the state constitution to allow same sex marriage than does the president of Chapman University."