LANDMARK RULING IN THE CALIFORNIA MARRIAGE CASES
Christine Peek was honored for her success in The Marriage Cases, in which the California Supreme Court held that excluding same-sex couples from marriage is unconstitutional. Christine authored an amicus brief in the cases for McManis Faulkner client, Santa Clara County Bar Association (The Bar Association of Silicon Valley).
On May 15, 2008, the California Supreme Court issued its much anticipated opinion in In re Marriage Cases, No. S147999, holding that the legislative and initiative measures excluding same-sex couples from marriage violate the state constitutional rights of same-sex couples. When the opinion takes effect, California will become the second state in the Union to allow same-sex couples to marry.
The case originated in 2004, when multiple plaintiffs filed suit challenging the constitutionality of California statutes limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples. The San Francisco Superior Court coordinated six cases raising the issue of the constitutionality of these statutes. After the marriage equality proponents won at the trial court level, but suffered a loss before the First District Court of Appeal, the coordinated cases made their way to the state’s highest court.
The majority opinion by Chief Justice Ronald George recognized that the long-acknowledged fundamental right to marry, grounded in the state constitution’s due process and privacy clauses, includes a same-sex couple’s “right to have their family relationship accorded dignity and respect equal to that accorded to other officially recognized families.” By assigning a different name—domestic partnership—to the official relationships of same-sex couples, the challenged statutes posed “a serious risk of denying the official family relationship of same-sex couples the equal dignity and respect that is a core element of the constitutional right to marry.” The Court also held the statutes violated the state’s equal protection clause, applying the most exacting standard of review, strict scrutiny.
The Court’s ruling enables persons who are currently registered as domestic partners to marry, although domestic partnerships will still exist in California. In addition, same-sex couples who have married outside California are recognized as married in California.