Gay marriage campaigners were celebrating a major victory on Tuesday, February 7, 2012, after a federal appeals court ruled California's same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional. The long-awaited ruling could pave the way for a US Supreme Court decision on the voter-approved measure known as Proposition 8. In a 2-1 decision, a three-judge panel of the ninth US circuit court of appeals in San Francisco agreed with a lower court judge who in 2010 declared the ban to be a violation of the civil rights of gay and lesbian people.
"Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples," wrote Stephen Reinhardt, one of the court's most liberal judges, in Tuesday's ruling.
In its ruling, the appeals panel stressed that its decision applies only to California, which allowed gay marriage before Proposition 8, even although it has jurisdiction in nine western states. Campaigners and supporters of equal marriage rights described the ruling as monumental and said it put California on a growing list of states that have ended barriers to marriage for gay and lesbian couples.
Evan Wolfson, founder and president of Freedom to Marry said: "Today's powerful court ruling striking down the infamous Prop 8 affirms basic American values, and helps tear down a discriminatory barrier to marriage that benefits no one while making it harder for people to take care of their loved ones. The ninth circuit rightly held that a state simply may not take a group of people and shove them outside the law, least of all when it comes to something as important as the commitment and security of marriage."
California voters passed Proposition 8 in 2008, but it was ruled unconstitutional by federal judge Vaughn Walker in 2010. The ban has remained in place since then, because the ninth circuit court put a stay on the Walker ruling pending appeals. Same-sex couples will not be able to marry in the state until at least after February 28, the deadline for Proposition 8's backers to appeal to a larger panel of the 9th circuit court. If they lose and then appeal to the supreme court, or appeal to the supreme court directly, there will be further delays.
In November, 2011, the California court gave the ballot measure backers the go-ahead, ruling that the state's citizens' initiative process grants sponsors the right to defend such measures in court even if state officials refuse to do so. The case was further complicated when lawyers for the coalition of conservative religious groups behind the ballot measure tried to have the trial ruling struck down after it emerged that Walker, the judge who struck down the ban 18 months ago, was in a long-term relationship with another man. On Tuesday, the panel also said there was no evidence that Walker was biased and should have disclosed before he issued his decision that he was gay. Walker ruled after the first federal trial to examine if the U.S. Constitution guarantees same-sex couples the right to marry. An estimated 18,000 same-sex couples in California wed during the four-month hiatus before Proposition 8 took effect. The passage of the ban followed the most expensive campaign on a social issue in U.S. history.
It was unclear when gay marriages might resume in California. Lawyers for Proposition 8 sponsors and for the two couples who successfully sued to overturn the ban have said they would consider appealing to a larger panel of the court and then the U.S. Supreme Court if they did not receive a favorable ruling. California voters passed Proposition 8 with 52 percent of the vote in November 2008, five months after the state Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage by striking down a pair of laws that had limited marriage to a man and a woman. The ballot measure inserted the one man-one woman provision into the California Constitution, thereby overruling the court's decision. It was the first such ban to take away marriage rights from same-sex couples after they had already secured them.
The Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and the Law, a think tank based at the University of California, Los Angeles, has estimated that 18,000 couples married during the four-month window before Proposition 8 took effect. The California Supreme Court upheld those marriages but ruled that voters had properly enacted the law. With same-sex marriages unlikely to resume in California any time soon, Love Honor Cherish, a gay rights group based in Los Angeles, plans to start gathering signatures for a November ballot initiative asking voters to repeal Proposition 8.
"Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples," wrote Stephen Reinhardt, one of the court's most liberal judges, in Tuesday's ruling.
In its ruling, the appeals panel stressed that its decision applies only to California, which allowed gay marriage before Proposition 8, even although it has jurisdiction in nine western states. Campaigners and supporters of equal marriage rights described the ruling as monumental and said it put California on a growing list of states that have ended barriers to marriage for gay and lesbian couples.
Evan Wolfson, founder and president of Freedom to Marry said: "Today's powerful court ruling striking down the infamous Prop 8 affirms basic American values, and helps tear down a discriminatory barrier to marriage that benefits no one while making it harder for people to take care of their loved ones. The ninth circuit rightly held that a state simply may not take a group of people and shove them outside the law, least of all when it comes to something as important as the commitment and security of marriage."
California voters passed Proposition 8 in 2008, but it was ruled unconstitutional by federal judge Vaughn Walker in 2010. The ban has remained in place since then, because the ninth circuit court put a stay on the Walker ruling pending appeals. Same-sex couples will not be able to marry in the state until at least after February 28, the deadline for Proposition 8's backers to appeal to a larger panel of the 9th circuit court. If they lose and then appeal to the supreme court, or appeal to the supreme court directly, there will be further delays.
In November, 2011, the California court gave the ballot measure backers the go-ahead, ruling that the state's citizens' initiative process grants sponsors the right to defend such measures in court even if state officials refuse to do so. The case was further complicated when lawyers for the coalition of conservative religious groups behind the ballot measure tried to have the trial ruling struck down after it emerged that Walker, the judge who struck down the ban 18 months ago, was in a long-term relationship with another man. On Tuesday, the panel also said there was no evidence that Walker was biased and should have disclosed before he issued his decision that he was gay. Walker ruled after the first federal trial to examine if the U.S. Constitution guarantees same-sex couples the right to marry. An estimated 18,000 same-sex couples in California wed during the four-month hiatus before Proposition 8 took effect. The passage of the ban followed the most expensive campaign on a social issue in U.S. history.
It was unclear when gay marriages might resume in California. Lawyers for Proposition 8 sponsors and for the two couples who successfully sued to overturn the ban have said they would consider appealing to a larger panel of the court and then the U.S. Supreme Court if they did not receive a favorable ruling. California voters passed Proposition 8 with 52 percent of the vote in November 2008, five months after the state Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage by striking down a pair of laws that had limited marriage to a man and a woman. The ballot measure inserted the one man-one woman provision into the California Constitution, thereby overruling the court's decision. It was the first such ban to take away marriage rights from same-sex couples after they had already secured them.
The Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and the Law, a think tank based at the University of California, Los Angeles, has estimated that 18,000 couples married during the four-month window before Proposition 8 took effect. The California Supreme Court upheld those marriages but ruled that voters had properly enacted the law. With same-sex marriages unlikely to resume in California any time soon, Love Honor Cherish, a gay rights group based in Los Angeles, plans to start gathering signatures for a November ballot initiative asking voters to repeal Proposition 8.
