California Supreme Court Upholds Voter Approved Constitutional Amendment Banning Same-Sex Marriage
Earlier today, the California Supreme Court issued its decision in Strauss v. Horton, upholding Proposition 8, an initiative passed by California voters in November 2008 to amend the California Constitution to ban the right of same-sex couples to marry. The Court rejected a variety of constitutional challenges to the Proposition and ultimately concluded that the Proposition was a validly enacted constitutional amendment that must be enforced. Therefore, going forward, only marriages between a man and a woman are recognized as valid in California.
Interestingly, however, the California Supreme Court held that Proposition 8 is not retroactive. Thus, same-sex marriages entered into prior to the effective date of Proposition 8 (and following the Supreme Court's prior decision in In re Marriage Cases) continue to be valid in California.