Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer issued a ruling today striking down California's official ban, following the passage of Proposition 22 just over four years ago, on same-sex marriages.
The case stemmed from the decision last spring by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom to issue official state marriage certificates to same-sex couples who wished to marry. More than 4,000 certificates were issued before the California Supreme Court ruled that Newsom had exceeded his power in giving official sanction to the marriages.
"It appears that no rational purpose exists for limiting marriage in this state to opposite-sex partners," Judge Kramer said, noting also in his 27-page decision that the state's ban on same-sex marriage violates "the basic human right to marry the person of one's choice."
Proponents of legalizing gay marriage, including National Center for Lesbian Rights' attorney Shannon Minter, argued in December during a hearing on the matter that same-sex couples who want to marry "are seeking nothing more and nothing less than the opportunities available to others in the state." That argument was supported by San Francisco's Chief Deputy City Attorney Therese Stewart.
On the other side, attorneys for California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who initially opposed defending the ban, argued that the traditional concept of marriage is deeply ingrained in the state's history and that such tradition trumps the equal-protection arguments of supporters of gay marriage.
The plaintiffs, however, argued that the law is contrary to the spirit of the state constitution, and that argument won the day.
"Simply put, same-sex marriage cannot be prohibited solely because California has always done so before," Judge Kramer said.
The judge also rejected pleas that civil unions were an adequate substitute for actual marriages.
"The idea that marriage-like rights without marriage is adequate smacks of a concept long rejected by the courts: separate but equal," he wrote, alluding to the doctrine long used to justify racial segregation which, in 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled had no place in public schools.
Two bills pending before the California Legislature would put a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage on the November ballot, and if such an amendment were approved by voters, the issue would largely be out of the reach of state legislators and the courts. Moreover, there is still a big push in Congress to pass a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage nationwide, although the text of such amendment has yet to be finalized, and President Bush has not come out strongly in favor of such a move.
