Shameful: California Supreme Court Upholds Same Sex-Marriage Ban

Posted by Steve Benen, Washington Monthly at 10:12 AM on May 26, 2009.

The ruling is not unexpected, and it comes with a small silver lining, but the news from the California Supreme Court this afternoon is nevertheless disappointing.

The California Supreme Court today upheld Proposition 8's ban on same-sex marriage but also ruled that gay couples who wed before the election will continue to be married under state law. [...]

Although the court split 6-1 on the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the justices were unanimous in deciding to keep intact the marriages of as many as 18,000 gay couples who exchanged vows before the election. The marriages began last June, after a 4-3 state high court ruling striking down the marriage ban last May.

In an opinion written by Chief Justice Ronald M. George, the state high court ruled today that the November initiative was not an illegal constitutional revision, as gay rights lawyers contended, nor unconstitutional because it took away an inalienable right, as Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown argued.

This is, of course, the same state Supreme Court that ruled in favor of marriage equality just last year, months before the vote on Prop. 8.

"In a sense, petitioners' and the attorney general's complaint is that it is just too easy to amend the California constitution through the initiative process. But it is not a proper function of this court to curtail that process; we are constitutionally bound to uphold it," the ruling said.

The LAT added that California voters are likely to consider the same issue next year, with another ballot measure to repeal the ban on same-sex marriage.

Tagged as: equality, lgbt rights, prop 8

Steve Benen is "blogger in chief" of the popular Washington Monthly online blog, Political Animal. His background includes publishing The Carpetbagger Report, and writing for a variety of publications, including Talking Points Memo, The American Prospect, the Huffington Post, and The Guardian. He has also appeared on NPR's "Talk of the Nation," MSNBC's "Rachel Maddow Show," Air America Radio's "Sam Seder Show," and XM Radio's "POTUS '08."