Against the warnings of the ACLU and Lambda Legal, two high powered lawyers filed a case in Federal Court against proposition 8. The case is based on the 14th Amendment.
Traditional gay rights groups are concerned the Supreme Court is not ready to hear this case. They are afraid they could rule against equality setting a long lasting precedence that could set the movement back decades.
Theodore B. Olson and David Boies, who represented opposing sides in the 2000 Bush v. Gore election challenge believe that waiting is no longer an option.
“There will be many people who will think this is not the time to go to federal,” Olson said Wednesday at a news conference in Los Angeles. “Both David and I have studied the court for more years than probably either one of us would like to admit. We think we know what we are doing.”
Boies agreed: “Reasonable minds can differ, but when you have people being denied civil rights today, I think it is impossible as lawyers and as an American to say ‘No, you have to wait, now is not the right time.’ I think if we had done that in prior civil rights battles, we would not be where we are.”
