Supreme Court Clears Way for Gay Marriage in California

The court also struck down a key portion of the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as a union between opposite-sex couples. In a 5-4 ruling, justices said the act was unconstitutional because it denied federal benefits to legally married gay couples.

However, that doesn't mean gay marriage is legal across the U.S. The justices did not rule on the merits of same-sex marriage itself, but merely upheld a federal court ruling that voided California's Prop. 8. 

"We have never before upheld the standing of a private party to defend the constitutionality of a state statute when state officials have chosen not to," according to the court's ruling, penned by Chief Justice John Roberts. "We decline to do so for the first time here."

Roberts was joined in the majority by Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Antonin Scalia.

Jeff Zarrillo, a Southern Californian who was one of the original plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit challenging Prop. 8, celebrated the court's decision in Washington, D.C.

"I look forward to growing old with the man I love," he told a cheering crowd outside the U.S. Supreme Court building.

But Randy Thomasson, president of SaveCalifornia.com, which supports Prop. 8, called the rulings an attack on the institution of marriage.

"The high court's refusal to correct the unconstitutional rulings of lower-court judges and the dereliction of duty by constitution-bound state officials demonstrates that not only is natural, man-woman marriage no longer respected, but neither is our republic and system of written laws," Thomasson said.

President Obama praised the Supreme Court ruling, saying the Defense of Marriage Act was "discrimination enshrined in law. It treated loving, committed gay and lesbian couples as a separate and lesser class of people. The Supreme Court has righted that wrong, and our country is better off for it. We are a people who declared that we are all created equal -- and the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.

"This ruling is a victory for couples who have long fought for equal treatment under the law; for children whose parents' marriages will now be recognized, rightly, as legitimate; for families that, at long last, will get the respect and protection they deserve; and for friends and supporters who have wanted nothing more than to see their loved ones treated fairly."

Obama added: "On an issue as sensitive as this, knowing that Americans hold a wide range of views based on deeply held beliefs, maintaining our nation's commitment to religious freedom is also vital. How religious institutions define and consecrate marriage has always been up to those institutions. Nothing about this decision -- which applies only to civil marriages -- changes that."

The Orange County Equality Coalition plans to hold an evening rally at the old county courthouse in Santa Ana.

Setting the Stage for Wednesday's Ruling

In March 2000, California voters approved Prop. 22, which said only marriages between a man and a woman were valid in the state. But in May 2008, the California Supreme Court ruled the law unconstitutional because it discriminated against gays. An estimated 18,000 same-sex couples got married in the ensuing months.

Opponents of same-sex marriage quickly got Prop. 8 on the November 2008 ballot to amend the state constitution, and it was approved by a margin of 52.5 percent to 47.5 percent. The approval was followed by statewide protests and lawsuits challenging Prop. 8's legality.

In May 2009, the California Supreme Court upheld Prop. 8 but also preserved the validity of the roughly 18,000 same-sex couples weddings that occurred before its passage.

Same-sex marriage supporters sued in federal court, and U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker ruled in August 2010 that Prop. 8 "unconstitutionally burdens the exercise of the fundamental right to marry and creates an irrational classification on the basis of sexual orientation."

Backers of Prop. 8 -- ProtectMarriage.com -- appealed to the 9th Circuit, because then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and then-Attorney General Jerry Brown declined to do so. The appellate court heard arguments in 2011 but put a decision on hold while it awaited a California Supreme Court ruling on the ability of Prop. 8 backers to press the case forward despite the state's refusal to appeal.

Once the state Supreme Court decided Prop. 8 supporters had legal standing, the 9th Circuit moved ahead with its consideration of the case, hearing more arguments on a motion by Prop. 8 backers asking that Walker's ruling be thrown out because the judge was in a long-term same-sex relationship that he had not disclosed.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year that the proposition's primary effect was to "lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California."

"It stripped same-sex couples of the ability they previously possessed to obtain and use the designation of 'marriage' to describe their relationships," according to the court's decision. "Proposition 8 therefore could not have been enacted to advance California's interests in child-rearing or responsible procreation, for it had no effect on the rights of same-sex couples to raise children or on the procreative practices of other couples.

"Nor did Proposition 8 have any effect on religious freedom or on parents' rights to control their children's education."

DOMA Overturned

In addition to Prop. 8, the U.S. Supreme Court also struck down a key portion of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which was enacted in 1996 and defined marriage solely as a union between opposite-sex couples. The court ruled the act was unconstitutional because it denied federal benefits to legally married same-sex couples.

Orange County Gears Up for Same-Sex Nuptials

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