Calif. Supreme Court To Rule Thursday On Gay Marriage

by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

Posted: May 14, 2008 - 3:00 pm ET

(San Francisco, California) The California Supreme Court announced on Wednesday it will issue its ruling tomorrow on whether same-sex couples can marry in the state.

The judgment is expected at 10:00 am PT, and LGBT groups throughout the state are making plans to be in San Francisco for the decision.

The case before the state Supreme Court dates back to 2004 when San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Some 8,000 couples exchanged vows before the state Supreme Court ruled Newsom had acted illegally.

The court nullified the marriages but said its ruling dealt only with Newsom's actions. The justices said at the time the question of whether barring same-sex couples from marrying violated the state's equal protection clause of its constitution was a separate matter.

Legal challenges on the constitutional question were begun almost immediately. Three separate suits ultimately were wrapped together into a single case.

In March 2005 a Superior Court judge in San Francisco ruled that the law denying same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.

"It appears that no rational purpose exists for limiting marriage in this state to opposite-sex partners," County Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer said in a written ruling.

In striking down the state ban on same-sex marriage Kramer wrote that the state's historical definition of marriage, by itself, cannot justify the denial of equal protection for gays and lesbians.

Kramer stayed his ruling while the state appealed.

In October, 2006, the California Court of Appeal in a split decision overturned Kramer's ruling and the case was appealed to the Supreme Court.

However the Court decides, the ruling will make history and have enormous impact on the movement for gay and lesbian civil rights, as well as the lives of many thousands of same-sex couples and their families across the country.

The ruling also will set the stage for a battle to protect the California Constitution from an anti-gay constitutional amendment initiative likely to appear on the November ballot.

A coalition of conservative groups, under the banner 'Protect Marriage' , have submitted more than required 694,354 signatures to qualify. The signatures are being verified.

Last month, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said that if an initiative to ban gay marriage qualifies for the November ballot, he's prepared to fight it.

He made the commitment at a convention of Log Cabin Republicans, the nation's largest gay Republican group.

Schwarzenegger has previously vetoed bills that would have legalized gay marriage. Both times Schwarzenegger said that the courts or the people through a plebiscite should decide the issue.