The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled California’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional this week, bringing the issue of marriage equality one large step closer to the U. S. Supreme Court.
In a 2-1 decision handed down Feb. 7, a panel of the appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that Proposition 8, a 2008 voter referendum that overturned the state’s gay-marriage law, violated the due-process and equal-protection constitutional guarantees of gays and lesbians.
Andrew Pugno, attorney for ProtectMarriage.com coalition — the backers of Prop. 8 who stepped in to defend the initiative after state officials refused — said Tuesday the group would appeal.
While Pugno said opponents of marriage equality have “known that the battle to preserve traditional marriage will ultimately be won or lost not here but rather in the U.S. Supreme Court,” it is unclear whether the group will appeal the case to the full Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals or directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Same-sex couples cannot head back to city halls, however, as a stay that was initially imposed after the 2010 ruling that overturned Prop. 8 remains in place.
In the majority opinion, written by Circuit Judges Michael Daly Hawkins and Stephen Reinhardt, the court found Prop. 8 created “meaningful harm” to same-sex couples.
Reinhardt wrote that the initiative had “no more practical effect than to strip gays and lesbians of the right to use the official designation that the state and society give to committed relationships, thereby adversely affecting the status and dignity of the members of a disfavored class.”
Judge Randy Smith, however, argued that the state may have had a legitimate interest in intervening in the issue because of the potential impact of the issue on children.
The judges all denied the argument held by Prop. 8 proponents that the lower court decision should be rejected because the judge who presided over the cases, Vaughan Walker, is gay.
Chad Griffin, board president of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, the sponsor of the plaintiffs’ case, said the ruling affirmed that “singling out a class of citizens for discriminatory treatment is unfair, unlawful and violates basic American values. Like many other Americans, our plaintiffs want nothing more than to marry the person they love. Committed, loving couples and their families should not be denied this most fundamental freedom.”
James Esseks, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBT Project, on Tuesday called the ruling “a wonderful victory not only for same-sex couples but for everyone who values fairness and dignity for all families. Same-sex couples want to marry for the same reasons others do: to make a solemn commitment to their partners and to protect their families. It’s cruel for any state to bar them from marriage, and today’s decision confirms that it’s unconstitutional as well.”
Mayors for the Freedom to Marry, of which Philadelphia Mayor Nutter is a member, released a joint statement following the ruling saying that the decision “reaffirms that the American Dream is possible for everyone and brings us one step closer to ending marriage discrimination once and for all. We look forward to a day when all of our citizens will be able to share fairly and equally in the freedom to marry.”