The effort to ban same-sex marriage is deemed unconstitutional.
In a landmark decision for LGBT rights, U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker overturned Proposition 8 today in San Francisco, stating that it "does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite sex couples are superior to same-sex couples,” and that “Proposition 8 prevents California from fulfilling its constitutional obligation to provide marriages on an equal basis.”
The ballot amendment was voted into effect in November of 2008, and ruled “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” After it passed, lesbian couple Kristin M. Perry and Sandra B. Stier and gay couple Paul T. Katami and Jeffrey J. Zarrillo challenged the proposition in court, alleging that it deprived them of their rights under laws protected by the Fourteenth Amendment.
Immediately following Walker’s decision, cheers could be heard outside the courthouse, and The Foundation of Equal Rights’ Chad Griffin stated in a press conference that by overturning the discriminatory amendment, “We affirm that this is a nation that has lived up to its historic promise.”