California Supreme Court Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage

In the California news:

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_9269719

California Supreme Court legalizes same-sex marriage
By Howard Mintz
Mercury News
Article Launched: 05/15/2008 10:11:17 AM PDT

A sharply divided California Supreme Court today legalized same-sex marriage, an historic ruling that will allow gay and lesbian couples across the state to wed as soon as next month and inflame the social, political and moral debate over gay unions.

In a 4-3 ruling written by Chief Justice Ronald George, the Supreme Court struck down California laws that restrict marriage to heterosexual couples, finding that it is unconstitutional to deprive gays and lesbians of the equal right to walk down the aisle with a marriage license in hand.

The California and Massachussetts Supreme Courts are now the only top courts in the country to uphold the right of gay couples to marry.

"The California Constitution properly must be interpreted to guarantee this basic civil right to all Californians, whether gay or heterosexual, and to same-sex couples as well as to opposite-sex couples," the court observed in a 121-page decision.

The reaction was immediate.

A spokesman for San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom sent a simple e-mail to his press staff: "We won."

The ruling marks a watershed moment in the conflict over gay marriage, with the most influential state Supreme Court in the nation, dominated by Republican appointees, ruling in favor of gay rights advocates in the state with the largest gay population. California was considered a crucial battleground for civil rights groups, which have lost a number of major legal challenges in recent years in other states such as New York, Washington and New Jersey.

The decision is sure to spark a furor that could spill into the ballot box in November, when there is a strong chance voters will be weighing a ballot initiative to change the state Constitution to outlaw same-sex marriage. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger previously announced his opposition to the ballot initiative, and reiterated his opposition today.

"I respect the court's decision and as governor, I will uphold its ruling," Schwarzenegger said within minutes of the ruling. "Also, as I have said in the past, I will not support an amendment to the constitution that would overturn this state Supreme Court ruling."

The three dissenters in today's ruling argued that it should be up to the voters or Legislature to sanction gay marriage, not the courts. A divided state appeals court reached that conclusion in 2006 when it upheld the ban on gay marriage, but that ruling was overturned by today's Supreme Court decision.

Justice Marvin Baxter, in one dissent, warned that the court had overstepped its judicial powers by overturning existing marriage laws.

"There is no deeply rooted tradition of same-sex marriage, in the nation or in this state," Baxter wrote, adding there is no constitutional right to gay marriage "because marriage is, as it always has been, the right of a woman and unrelated man to marry each other."

George was joined in the majority decision by two other Republican justices, Kathryn Mickle Werdegar and Joyce Kennard. Justice Carlos Moreno, the lone Democratic appointee on the court, also joined George's ruling. Baxter, Ming Chin and Carol Corrigan dissented.

The Supreme Court's intervention has been inevitable since February 2004, when San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom ignited a national outcry by giving same-sex couples the short-lived right to marry at City Hall, a move that attracted lines of couples to City Hall steps each day. The Supreme Court quickly put a halt to Newsom's edict, invalidating thousands of marriage licenses - the justices found that Newsom had overstepped his authority by violating state law, but invited a broad legal challenge to California's ban on gay marriage.

San Francisco city officials, civil rights groups and gay couples then filed a series of lawsuits challenging a state family code section that restricts marriage to heterosexual couples, and also a 2000 voter-approved ballot initiative, Proposition 22, that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

The lawsuits argued that the state is denying gay couples equal treatment. One of the leading cases to back their cause was a 60-year-old California Supreme Court ruling that struck down the state's ban on interracial marriage, at the time the first such decision in the United States.

California officials have defended the current law, despite the fact that both former Attorney General Bill Lockyer and current Attorney General Jerry Brown do not oppose gay marriage. State lawyers have argued that California's strong domestic partners laws essentially already provide equal benefits to same-sex couples, eliminating the need to tamper with the traditional definition of marriage laws.

Conservative groups opposed to gay marriage have taken a stronger view, arguing that the state has a crucial interest in restricting marriage to heterosexual couples for social cohesion and because they maintain marriage is rooted in procreation. Throughout the court case, they have vowed to turn to the voters if the current laws are overturned, a strategy that has worked in other states.

A San Francisco trial judge initially found the state's gay marriage ban unconstitutional, but that ruling was overturned by the San Francisco-based 1st District Court of Appeal in 2006.