constitutional amendment very low turnout election. eight months ago by 61%. the polls in california had us at 36%. support for tradition al marriage. but when people came out, they voted by 53% to support traditional marriage. so the real issue is, is the court going to launch another culture war by trumping the votes of these states and of the duly elected members of congress who passed doma. let me ask you this, if they punt, if they punt prop 8, is that a victory or a loss or a fight another day? well, again, i disagree with pete. i don t think the court is going to punt. the court is going to answer the question. the question is simple. do the people of the state of california, do the people of the states of this country have the right to have their voices heard, or is the court going to trash over 15 million votes? the lower court ruling wasn t just about proposition 8 and what is being brought forward is the myth that somehow embedded within our constitution
built this wealth together, her rights were violated. so there are many people who may agree with traditional marriage as people define it but feel they don t have the right to have an unequal situation with others and, therefore, define for them their life. my battle with brian is not over marriage. my battle is he doesn t have the right to impose his definition of marriage and therefore make inequality on other people. can you, peggy, can society handle the court basically agreeing with both of them that, okay, you have traditional a traditional view of marriage but somebody in a same-sex civil union or marriage shouldn t be denied the rights that married couples between men and women get when it comes to financial situations and things like that? people were thinking in the past few years the civil partnerships, not marriage, but legal civil partnerships that conferred the protection sought by the woman who brought the
suit might be a preferable way to go. but that s a legal question. i m not really qualified to speak of it. two things struck me about the past few days and the court. one this is an epic, big, cultural debate that s supposed to be happening. and yet it was a short, sometimes weirdly comic sort of shallow debate. did you find it that way? i mean, i was really struck that they were not talking with about big issues but sort of dumb stuff that you talk about in college dorms. forgive me. no, no. or is this the norm of the court? i would say this was not despite the efforts by lawyers on both sides not, in terms of the justices, a fundamental discussion about, shall we have sa same-sex marriage or shall we not? is it a good thing for the country or isn t it? the court just for whatever reason doesn t want to go there at this point. now, to be clear, there are certainly some conservatives who are prepared to uphold prop 8 and some of the court s liberals
support for tradition al marriage. but when people came out, they voted by 53% to support traditional marriage. so the real issue is, is the court going to launch another culture war by trumping the votes of these states and of the duly elected members of congress who passed doma. let me ask you this, if they punt, if they punt prop 8, is that a victory or a loss or a fight another day? well, again, i disagree with pete. i don t think the court is going to punt. the court is going to answer the question. the question is simple. do the people of the state of california, do the people of the states of this country have the right to have their voices heard, or is the court going to trash over 15 million votes? the lower court ruling wasn t just about proposition 8 and what is being brought forward is the myth that somehow embedded within our constitution something the founders didn t see and we haven t seen up until now, there is a right to
that tends to move slowly. forces are colliding. joining us now to discuss the politics of same-sex marriage the host of msnbc politics nation and president and founder of national action network reverend al sharpton. president of the national organization are for marriage, brian brown. nbc news justice correspondent, pete williams. sticking around, who is your vafd the vote as a panelist survivor, wall street news columnist peggy noonan and joining us actor rob reiner. mr. reiner, thank you. thank you for having me. pete, i want to make you do your correspondent job. what happened this week? where s the court? well, what i think we re not going to get is some sort of sweeping ruling on same-sex marriage. we re probably not going to get some sort of sweeping ruling on prop 8. on the prop 8 case, the case from california, this is the proposition passed by 52% of voters that stopped same-sex marriage in the state. it seemed like the supreme court is just not ready to rule one way