JUSTICE — NEW POLLS SHOW ‘INCREASING SUPPORT’ FOR MARRIAGE EQUALITY IN CALIFORNIA: As District Judge Vaughn Walker prepares to issue his decision in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage in the state — new polling shows a majority of Californians supports allowing gays and lesbians to marry. A recent poll released by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) “shows [that] a significant percentage of Californians, including people of faith across the California religious landscape, say they have become increasingly supportive of gay rights over the last five years.” The poll also found that only 22 percent of Californians think the passage of Prop 8 was a “good thing” for the state. Additionally, “an overwhelming majority…say they both favor laws that would protect gay and lesbian people from job discrimination and favor allowing [them] to serve openly in the military (75 percent and 69 percent respectively).” Adding to the credibility of the PRRI poll is a Field poll released the day before, also showing a majority of California registered voters supporting marriage equality. The “survey shows that Californians’ opinions on gay marriage have grown more approving over time.” The increase in support for marriage equality reflects a growing sense of bipartisanship on the issue. As Center for American Progress President and CEO John Podesta and Cato Institute chairman Robert A. Levy concluded in a recent op-ed, “The decision in Perry depends, of course, on values far more permanent and important than opinion polls. No less than the constitutional rights of millions of Americans are at stake. But the public appears to be catching up with the Constitution. Just a little more leadership from the courts would be the perfect prescription for a free society.”