Ninth Circuit Rules Proposition 8 Unconstitutional Under Rational Basis Review

Breaking news out of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals: a three-judge panel has ruled California's controversial Proposition 8 unconstitutional. The most interesting aspect of the decision is the court's rejection of Proposition 8 as unconstitutional under rational basis review, the lowest standard of constitutional scrutiny: "Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples." That is a benchslap of somewhat epic proportions.

It is possible that review under the highest level of review, strict scrutiny, may have been appropriate here--the U.S. Supreme Court indicated that legislation regulating marriage and procreation "involves one of the basic civil rights of man"...