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<b>BREAKING NEWS:</b> CA Marriage Ruling Makes History

By Mike McKee
May 15, 2008

On a blast-furnace of a day when normally chilly San Francisco hit 96 degrees, the California Supreme Court enhanced its reputation as a trail-blazing institution on May 15 by giving gays and lesbians the right to marry.

'The California Constitution,' Chief Justice Ronald George wrote in the 4-3 ruling (.pdf), 'properly must be interpreted to guarantee this basic civil right to all Californians, whether gay or heterosexual, and to same-sex couples as well as to opposite-sex couples.'

The ruling in In re Marriage Cases, 08 C.D.O.S. 5820, ' which declared unconstitutional a same-sex marriage ban enacted in state law in 1977 and reinforced by voters in 2000 ' makes California the second state in the nation to grant gays and lesbians marriage rights. But several lawyers noted that the California decision went even further than Massachusetts' 2004 ruling by declaring sexual orientation a suspect classification that requires any marriage ban to be reviewed under strict scrutiny.

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