Prop 8: Supreme Court Rules Gay Marriages Can Resume in California

After years of debate and legal wrangling between opponents and proponents of same-sex marriage, the U.S. Supreme Court today cleared the way for the unions to resume in California, ruling that supporters of Proposition 8 lacked standing to appeal lower court rulings that deemed the state's voter-approved measure unconstitutional.

"The laws of our land are catching up to the fundamental truth that millions of Americans hold in our hearts:  when all Americans are treated as equal, no matter who they are or whom they love, we are all more free," President Obama said in a statement after the ruling for Prop 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act was announced.

Proposition 8 restricted marriages in California to unions between a man and a woman. It was enacted by voters in 2008 but was deemed unconstitutional last year by a federal appeals court, which found the initiative was at odds with U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment guaranteeing equal protection under the law.

In Wednesday's 5-4 vote, the high court itself said nothing about the validity of gay marriage bans in California and dozens of other states.

Since Proposition 8 supporters had no standing, the court did not issue a ruling on the merits of same-sex marriage, but merely let stand the original federal court ruling striking down the measure. The Supreme Court's action means same-sex marriage will be legal in California, but not across the nation.

"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 ruling.  "We decline to do so for the first time here."

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, and was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Antonin Scalia. 

"I applaud the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act," President Obama said.  "This 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 and have worked hard to persuade their nation to change for the better."

Local Reaction

At 6 p.m., supporters of same-sex marriage will hold a rally at the "Forever Marilyn" statue at Palm Canyon Drive and Tahquitz Canyon Way in Palm Springs. Groups including the LGBT Community Center of the Desert, the Desert AIDS Project, Equality California, Lambda Legal and the Human Rights Campaign are sponsoring the event.

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--City News Service contributed to this report.