Tornado Alley (PROG)

[StephanieVanbryce]

Prop 8: California gay marriage ban struck down by federal appeals court

Ninth circuit court of appeals rules Proposition 8 unconstitutional and says it 'lessens human dignity of gay and lesbian people'

Karen McVeigh Tuesday 7 February 2012 14.07 EST


Prop 8 campaigners said the ruling added California to the growing list of states that have ended
barriers to marriage for gay and lesbian couples. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Gay marriage campaigners were celebrating a major victory on Tuesday after a federal appeals court ruled California's same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional. The long-awaited ruling paves the way for a US supreme court decision on the voter-approved measure known as Proposition 8.

In a two-to-one 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," judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote in Tuesday's ruling.

"Although the constitution permits communities to enact most laws they believe to be desirable, it requires that there be at least a legitimate reason for the passage of a law that treats different classes of people differently," the ruling states.

"There was no such reason that Proposition 8 could have been enacted."

The ruling is limited to California, which allowed gay marriage but then passed Proposition 8 in 2008.

Campaigners described the ruling as monumental, and said that it added California to the 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. But the ban has remained in place since then, because the ninth circuit court put a stay on the Walker ruling pending appeals.

However, even after today's ruling same-sex marriages are unlikely to go ahead any time soon.

Backers of Proposition 8 have said they plan to appeal to a larger 9th circuit panel and then to the US supreme court if they lose.

As a result, same sex couples in California, who enjoyed a brief, four-month legal right to marry in 2008, are likely to have to wait longer to find out if it will be restored.

John Eastman, chairman of the National Organisation for Marriage, which supported the ban, said in statement: "The ninth circuit court of appeals is the most overturned circuit in the country, and Stephen Reinhardt, the author of today's absurd ruling, is the most overturned federal judge in America.

"Today's ruling is a perfect set-up for this case to be taken by the US supreme court, where I am confident it will be reversed."

The case has already been subjected to lengthy delays. Arguments about the constitutional implications of the case were heard by the panel more than a year ago.

But it put off a decision in order to seek guidance from the California supreme court on whether the ban's sponsors had the legal authority to challenge the ruling. The state's attorney general and governor had decided not to appeal it.

In November, 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 was in a long-term relationship with another man.

They argued he should have revealed his relation before he declared the measure unconstitutional in August 2010.

Walker disclosed he was gay and had a partner of 10 years after he retired from the bench last year.

However, Walker's successor as the chief federal judge in northern California, James Ware, rejected claims that Walker was unqualified to preside over the 13-day trial.

An estimated 18,000 same-sex couples in California wed during the four-month hiatus before Proposition 8 took effect, according to the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and the Law, a thinktank based at the University of California, Los Angeles.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/07/prop-8-california-gay-marriage-ban-struck-down