California high court to rule this morning on gay marriage - Los Angeles Times

This will be interesting to see.

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California high court to rule this morning on gay marriage

Los Angeles Times

The California Supreme Court says it plans to issue its long-awaited decision on whether to legalize same-sex marriage today.

The high court announced the pending opinion on its Web site Wednesday morning. Justices heard oral arguments in a series of cases brought by gay and lesbian couples, the city of San Francisco and two gay rights advocacy groups in early March.

The court has been asked to decide whether the state's one man-one woman marriage laws violate the civil rights of same-sex couples.

If it rules in favor of the plaintiffs, California could become the second state after Massachusetts where gays and lesbians can legally wed.

No matter what the court decides, the debate over gay matrimony in California is unlikely to end. A group has circulated petitions for a November ballot initiative that would amend the state Constitution to block same-sex marriage, while the Legislature has twice passed bills to authorize gay marriage. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed both.

The long-awaited decision stems from San Francisco's highly publicized same-sex weddings, which in 2004 helped spur a conservative backlash in an a presidential election year and a national dialogue over gay rights.

Several states have since passed constitutional amendments banning gay marriage, and same-sex marriage became an issue in the 2004 presidential campaign.

Today's ruling by the Republican-dominated court will affect more than 100,000 same-sex couples in the state, about a quarter of whom have children, according to U.S. census figures. High courts in New York, Washington and New Jersey have refused to extend marriage rights to gay couples. Only Massachusetts' top court has ruled in favor of permitting gays to wed.

Gay rights lawyers won an early victory in the dispute when a San Francisco trial judge decided in 2005 that gays should be permitted to wed. An appeals court later overturned that decision on a 2-1 vote, ruling that only the Legislature or the voters could change California's traditional definition of marriage. Lawyers in favor of same-sex marriage argued that the law discriminated on the basis of both gender and sexual orientation.

Opponents countered that the ban was gender-neutral, barring both women and men from marrying members of their own sex. They also argued that people could be treated differently because of their sexual orientation if there was a rational basis for it.

In 2000, 61% of California voters approved a ballot measure, Proposition 22, that said "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid and recognized in California."

Since the ballot measure, California has passed one of the strongest domestic partnership laws in the country, giving registered same-sex couples most of the rights of married people.

The plan by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, City Atty. Dennis Herrera and gay rights lawyers to challenge state marriage laws by wedding same-sex couples was carefully considered.

City officials chose the first couples to wed, hoping their long unions and sympathetic stories would put a face on same-sex marriage that courts would find difficult to reject. The city also decided to begin the weddings on a day when courts were closed to deprive opponents of quick legal intervention.

One of the first couples to wed, the lead plaintiffs in San Francisco's lawsuit challenging marriage laws, has since separated and is no longer part of the case.

The long parade of weddings fours years ago -- at City Hall and across the street from the California Supreme Court -- provided a dramatic backdrop for the gay rights debate.

Young gay fathers with babies strapped to their chests, lesbian couples with children and elderly gay couples who had been together for decades celebrated their unions while passersby honked their horns and friends threw rice and popped champagne corks. Protestors also showed up, carrying signs and denouncing the newlyweds.