By Mario Conde

El Centro California-The County Board of Supervisors decided to intervene on behalf of the voters of Imperial Valley in a federal lawsuit that is trying to overturn proposition 8.

The Board of Supervisors met early in their meeting on closed session to discuss two last minute items that was brought to them. When the board came out of closed session County Counsel Michael Rood informed the public the board decided to take action to intervene in the case of Perry v. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The County of Imperial, according to Rood, will be done in order to represent the voters of the Imperial Valley who overwhelmingly supported to define marriage as the union between a man and a woman.

Supervisor Wally Leimgruber, Fuentes, and Terrazas voting in favor to intervene and Supervisor Wyatt and Kelley voted against it.

County Board Chairman and District 5 representative Wally Leimgruber said that the board decided to get involve representing the voters of Imperial Valley who voted 69% in favor of this proposition. Leimgrubers said the County was approached by a law firm who asked them if they wanted to get involved since they looked at the valley’s high voting in favor of the measure. The Chairman said that they had to act fast since federal judge Vaughn Walker set January 11, 2010 as the date when he will open a federal trial to decide whether or not proposition 8 is unconstitutional under the U.S. Constitution.

Proposition 8 was passed by California voters on November 2008 to keep marriage defined as the union between a man and a woman. The measure was challenged at the State court which upheld the decision of the voters. Gay marriage backers argued in Perry v. Schwarzenegger that Proposition 8, the voter-approved measure that repealed gay marriage in California, “was only made on the grounds of animus towards same-sex couples.”

This situation comes after Washington D.C. approved marriage between same-sex couples this Tuesday.