News Center: News Releases

Professor Shaun Martin Comments on Supreme Court's Decision to Review Prop. 8

SAN DIEGO (December 8, 2012)—Today, USD School of Law Professor Shaun Martin was quoted in a San Diego Union-Tribune article, "Justices to Rule on Gay Marriage." Professor Martin provided expert legal commentary about the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to review Proposition 8, a 2008 state constitutional amendment that added a new provision stating only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California:

Typically, the state argues on behalf of voter-approved laws. In this case, then-Attorney General Jerry Brown, now governor, opted not to defend Proposition 8. The measure's proponents got a legal ruling allowing them to intervene and take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

If the Supreme Court decides the proponents don't have standing, Proposition 8 would fall and same-sex marriage would again be legal. But that would probably apply only in California, allowing the justices to sidestep the bigger question.

"Resolving the case on standing grounds is a way to avoid issuing what will be one way or the other a deeply controversial decision," said Shaun Martin, a professor at the University of San Diego School of Law.

Read the full San Diego Union-Tribune story online.