CA Supreme Court rejects last remaining challenge to same-sex marraige

More than a month after the U.S. Supreme Courtcleared the way for same-sex weddings to resume in California, the state’shighest court today rejected the last remaining legal challenge to the unions.

The state Supreme Court dismissed a last-minute petition by supportersof Proposition 8 — which was approved by California voters in 2008 and bannedsame-sex marriage — asking that the measure continue to be enforced in thestate. They argued that a 2010 ruling by a federal judge that Proposition 8 wasunconstitutional was not enough to overturn the law.

The California Supreme Court did not detail the reasons for itsdecision, simply dismissing the petition.

The latest petition was filed following the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 26ruling that opponents of same-sex marriage lacked legal standing to appealthe federal judge’s decision that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional. Two dayslater, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal lifted a stay it had placed on theruling while appeals were pending, clearing the way for same-sex marriages toresume in the state.

That led to the last-minute appeals by Proposition 8 supporters hopingto keep the measure in place. San Diego County Clerk Ernest Dronenburg Jr. alsofiled court papers with the state’s highest court asking for clarification onwhether his office was required to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples,but he agreed earlier this month to withdraw the petition in light of theappeal by Prop. 8 supporters.

In March 2000, California voters approved Prop. 22, which specified instate law that only marriages between a man and a woman are valid inCalifornia. But in May of 2008, the state Supreme Court ruled the law wasunconstitutional because it discriminated against gays, and an estimated 18,000same-sex couples got married in the ensuing months.

Opponents of same-sex marriage quickly got Prop. 8 on the November 2008ballot to amend the state constitution, and it was approved by a margin of 52.5percent to 47.5 percent.

In May 2009, the California Supreme Court upheld Prop. 8 but also ruledthat the unions of roughly 18,000 same-sex couples who were wed in 2008 priorto its passage would remain valid.

Same-sex marriage supporters took their case to federal court, and U.S.District Judge Vaughn R. Walker ruled in August 2010 that Proposition 8 “bothunconstitutionally burdens the exercise of the fundamental right to marry andcreates an irrational classification on the basis of sexual orientation.”

Backers of Proposition 8 — ProtectMarriage.com — appealed to the 9thCircuit, because then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and then-Attorney GeneralJerry Brown declined to do so. The appellate court heard arguments in 2011 butput a decision on hold while it awaited a state Supreme Court ruling on theability of Prop. 8 backers to press the case forward despite the state’srefusal to appeal.

The state Supreme Court decided that Prop. 8 supporters had legalstanding, so the 9th Circuit moved ahead with its consideration of the case,hearing more arguments on a motion by Prop. 8 backers asking that Walker’sruling be thrown out because the judge was in a long-term same-sex relationshipthat he had not disclosed.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled lastyear that the proposition’s primary impact was to “lessen the status and humandignity of gays and lesbians in California.”

That ruling led to the appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.