Marriage Ban Violates Constitution, Court Rules - NYTimes.com

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has voided as violative of Equal Protection Proposition 8 - the popular referendum which barred gay marriage in California. The Federal court struck the measure, which amended the state constitution, overturning  a California Supreme Court decision affirming the right to marry on state constitutional grounds.  California Governor Jerry Brown refused to defend the referendum first as Attorney General, and now as Governor. 
The ruling is a narrow one.  It centers on the fact that Prop. 8 took away a status which some California same-sex couples had already gained while same-sex marriage was recognized in California.  Prop. 8 arbitrarily denied "equal dignity" to same sex married couples, the court concluded.  - GWC

Marriage Ban Violates Constitution, Court Rules - NYTimes.com: "“Although the Constitution permits communities to enact most laws they believe to be desirable, it requires that there be at least a legitimate reason for the passage of a law that treats different people differently,” Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote in the decision. “There was no such reason that Proposition 8 could have been enacted.”


“All that Proposition 8 accomplished was to take away from same sex-couples the right to be granted marriage licenses and thus legally to use the designation ‘marriage,” the judge wrote, adding: “Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gay men and lesbians in California.""


Lead counsel for plaintiffs are the odd couple: David Boies and Theodore Olson (as in Gore v. Harris)
Opinion in Perry v. Brown (in his official capacity)
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