Quasi-Suspect Class

And that in a nutshell is the crux of the Connecticut Supreme Court Decision awarding gays the right to marriage.

I spent the afternoon talking with some pretty bright legal minds who marveled at the well written and well researched decision. One said it would be hard to argue against their ruling given the meticulous nature with which they assembled this ruling. BUT … to make such a sound legal decision the court had to make two key findings, and both in their minds required a “leap of faith”.

First and most critical … that civil unions in of themselves are “perceived” to be inferior. On what basis, you ask? Based on Connecticut’s civil union law itself. One Constitutional Law Professor told me the court actually used the language of the law to advance the plaintiff’s view that CUs are inferior. When a law grants the same rights of marriage, but then goes out of its way to make sure everyone know its not marriage … well … you get the idea.

The second key point here was the establishment of gays as a “Quasi-Suspect Class”. This is critical because I am told without this class status a violation of constitutional protections, namely equal protection, would be impossible to establish.

The problem both attorneys had with the decision was that each key component required a “leap of faith” on the part of the majority justices. Other than the CU language and the perception by the class themselves, there was not much evidene of CU’s being inferior or second class in any way to marriage (although both said they were not intimately familiar with Connecticut’s CU law). It is perceived … apparently only by the class and these justices. The difference is semantics and that does not seem to them to be a good enough reason to overturn law. A sort of “a rose is a rose” clause.

In addition there seemed little reason to establish gay people as a “Quasi-Suspect Class”. Perhaps at one point in history, but today, and in Connecticut?

So what was their overall opinion. One disagreed with the ruling but considered it well written and reasoned an so … time to move on to more important things that actually affect the people. The other attorney made it clear, since this in no way affected straight people any more than civil unions did which is zero, fogetaboutit!. A rose is still a rose … now gays can call it a rose if they wish.