Civil rights groups on Nov. 14 filed a petition with the California Supreme Court to stop the enactment of Proposition 8 because it would mandate discrimination against a minority group and did not follow the process required for fundamental revisions to the California Constitution.

In the petition, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Equal Justice Society, California NAACP and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. argue that in order to protect the fundamental rights of all Californians, a higher standard is required to overturn the right to marry. Minority communities cannot be stripped of their fundamental rights by a simple majority vote.   Read More »

From an email sent Nov. 8 by EJS president Eva Paterson:

Many of you are probably breathing several big sighs of relief today. The elections were not stolen. Our national leaders got a deafening wake up call about how the American public feels about an unwise war and a Congress sold to the highest bidder. Many of us feel relieved and elated but where do we go from here?

EJS is concerned with social justice issues. We feel that racial issues are not adequately addressed in this country. We have heard Democratic strategists advise Democrats not to talk about race. Republicans cynically exploit the Black community's allegiance to Christian churches by using same sex marriage as a wedge issue to pull a small percentage of Black voters to the GOP to get candidates elected.

There were many candidates of color running for office from both parties. We are delighted to see the election of many of these candidates including Deval Patrick in Massachusetts, Keith Ellison in Minnesota, John Chiang in California, and Bob Menendez in New Jersey. We also are delighted that the first woman, Nancy Pelosi, is poised to be the Speaker of the House.

One of the issues EJS was most concerned about in this election cycle was the attempt of Ward Connerly to effectively overturn the Grutter decision in Michigan through the passage of Proposal 2. Many of us watched the election returns until the early hours of the morning, but heard no mention of this very important racial issue. Even the fact the Connerly cheerfully accepted the endorsement of the KKK did not get on the radar screen of the national media.

At this moment, control of the Senate is not clear but we may have an opportunity to help get federal judges confirmed who are less hostile to civil and human rights. We may also have House members who are more willing to address issues of race and social equality. One consistent theme here at EJS is that progressives must stop only playing defense. With a more moderate Congress, we may be able to advance a more positive agenda.

We hope that the ideology of demeaning government will get less traction in this new Congress. We saw through the suffering of folks in NewOrleans the real life effects of failing to adequately fund useful government programs. We hope that our tax dollars will be used to restore the safety net rather than to spend $100,000 a minute in Iraq-money that is often spent to satisfy the requirements of non bid contracts to companies such as Halliburton.

Pundits told us that close to $3 BILLION were spent on this election. We saw many negative ads including a racist ad in Tennessee that played on fears of inter-racial sexual relationships-the modern day Willie Horton ad. EJS has stood for full public financing of elections, which would have created a system where candidates with the best ideas would have been elected to office and not candidates who had access to the most campaign contributions. We were saddened to see Prop 89 go down to defeat.

In short, yesterday was a mixed bag for those who support the vision of EJS. We are happy that our elections were not stolen once again, although we are keeping a careful eye on Virginia. We are happy that the collective dissatisfaction of the American people with the direction the country is headed was heard loud and clear. We know however that racial inequality is still alive and well in this country and that advocates must keep talking about this. It is quite interesting that the racism of George Allen probably cost him an easy victory in Virginia. This is heartening and gives us reason to press on.

Yes, let's take a moment to savor the moment, for the good and bad, but let's keep pushing to remake the world to be more just and fair. I watched a PBS report of Linda Ellerbee's news for kids. She said something that stuck with me and gave me hope when she told the kids she works with that "wherever you find bad things happening in this world, you will also find people trying to make things better."

We look forward to years of making things better with all of you.

Stay strong.

EVA PATERSON
Equal Justice Society

www.equaljusticesociety.org

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