Politics & Government
Same Sex Marriage To Return To California
Landmark rulings on two same sex marriage cases mean state county clerks can begin issuing marriage licenses, but just when is still unclear, particularly if Prop. 8 supporters go back to court.
By L.A. Chung and Joan S. Dentler
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on both the Defense of Marriage Act and the appeal of a lower court ruling on California’s Prop. 8, have paved the way for same-sex marriage to resume in California.
Justices said the sponsors of the appeal had no standing to bring it to the high court, which means a lower-court decision ruling Prop 8 unconstitutional stands, according to NBC Bay Area and the San Francisco Chronicle.
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Cheers began erupting in San Francisco’s City Hall early Wednesday morning as news of the standing made its way through the crowd. Mayor Ed Lee and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom walked down the steps under the City Hall Rotunda with Phyllis Lyon, one half of the first lesbian couple to wed in San Francisco when same-sex marriage was briefly legal in 2008. Her spouse, Del Martin, died later that year.
"Like any journey it's not linear—it's messy, it's complex. There are good days and bad days, but it's a worthy journey that we're on," said Newsom, who galvanized the recent movement nine years ago when he ordered marriage licenses to be issued in San Francisco, a city and county.
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The Supreme Court's first ruling was that the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which prevented gay marriages from being legally recognized by the federal government, is unconstitutional, according to the Huffington Post.
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote the majority opinion in the 5-4 decision, striking down DOMA on the grounds that it violates the Fifth Amendment, depriving a class of persons from their equal liberty. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. was in the minority, as were Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr.
“The federal statute is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and injure those whom the State, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity,” Justice Kennedy wrote.
In the Prop. 8 decision, the justices ruled 5 to 4 that the sponsors of Prop. 8, could not represent the state or its voters in appealing lower-court rulings that held the initiative unconstitutional. Prop. 8 is the 2008 California initiative that defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The measure's sponsors had stepped in after Gov. Jerry Brown and Attorney General Kamala Harris declined to defend Prop. 8.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, stating that once Prop. 8 had been passed, the sponsors had no more stake in the matter than "the general interest of every individual in California.
"...They answer to no one ... have taken no oath of office" and are plainly not agents of the state," Roberts said, in the Chronicle report of the decision.
San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera has said that in the event that the Supreme Court ruled on the standing issue, he expected same-sex weddings in the California to resume by late July. That timing includes 25 days in which Proposition 8 sponsors could ask the court for a rehearing, plus several days for a federal appeals court to issue a mandate dismissing the appeal. But there could be further litigation about the scope of the trial court ruling striking down Proposition 8.Check back for updates.
—Patch Local Editor Jessica Mullins and Bay City News contributed to this report
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