Mon. February 6, 2012
San Francisco, CA -
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is expected to release a long-awaited ruling Tuesday on the constitutionality of Proposition 8, California's same-sex marriage ban.
The court's public information office expects a ruling in the Perry v. Brown case challenging the constitutionality of Proposition 8 by 10 a.m. Pacific Time.
Proposition 8 was passed in November 2008 by voters after the State Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage was legal. Prop. 8 added a a new provision to the California Constitution which provides that "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."
Then, in the summer of 2010, a San Francisco-based judge, who is also gay, ruled that Prop. 8 was discriminatory. But that same judge, Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, also immediately put a stay on his decision, so that local governments could avoid a back-and-forth, legal and not legal seesaw with gay marriage licenses and rights.
Tuesday's federal appeals court decision will rule on Walker's decision.
Normally in these cases, a state law like Prop. 8 is defended by the Governor and the State Attorney General, and the initial case was called Perry vs. [Arnold] Schwarzenegger. However, both Schwarzenegger and then-Attorney General Jerry Brown refused to defend the law, so an anti-gay Christian group took up the cause.
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