Sacramento, CA — Los Angeles, CA— The California Supreme Court has allowed the California proposition 8 vote to stand. The decision will prevent the State of California from extending marriage equality to gay and lesbian California residents from obtaining marriage licenses in that state. Proposition 8, passed by a slim majority of voters on November 4 and eliminating the right of same-sex couples to marry, was a valid amendment to the California Constitution.
The court did allow that the 18,000 same-sex couples that were allowed to be married in California remain married and unaffected by the November 2008 proposition.
Gay rights groups filed Strauss v. Horton, challenging Proposition 8, on November 5. The National Center for Lesbian Rights, Lambda Legal and the ACLU, representing six couples and Equality California, argued that the radical change attempted by Proposition 8 amounts to a “revision” of the California Constitution that cannot be accomplished by a simple majority vote of the electorate unless first approved by a two-thirds vote of both houses of the Legislature. Civil rights groups representing people of color and other minority groups joined the challenge because of a shared concern about protecting the constitutional guarantee of equality.
—Staff
