ACLU of Santa Cruz County, CA

Today, May 15, 2008, in a powerful landmark decision, the California Supreme Court declared that provisions of the state Constitution protecting equality and fundamental rights disallow laws restricting marriage to unions of a man and a woman. This resulted from a lawsuit brought by the City of San Francisco and various Gay Rights groups, and was a suit supported by the ACLU.

In 2004, San Francisco began licensing same sex couples to marry, but the courts put a stop to the practice after about 1 month. Those licenses were then voided, and the lawsuit began. This clearly constitutes a powerful step forward in recognizing discrimination against gays as unlawful. In fact, the court also changed the standard for considering discrimination against gays in other matters of law, providing for "strict review", rather than the relaxed review previously called for by the courts.

In an email, Maya Harris, Executive Director of the ACLU of Northern California, said:

Friends,

We won. Today is the day we’ve been working for - a watershed for basic fairness and human dignity. Profound social change starts in California, and does not end here. It influences the rest of the nation. Today’s decision takes its rightful historic place alongside other decisions that have formally recognized what we, as Americans, have always aspired to: a more perfect, more egalitarian union of free people, free to choose our destiny, including whom to marry.

Californians consider bans on interracial marriage an embarrassing relic of bigotry - and so does the rest of the country. But in 1948, when the California Supreme Court struck down the state law barring interracial marriage, it blazed a brave new path for California and the nation. That decision changed California, and then it changed America.

Today’s pioneering decision heralds a sea change in California history, and it will also spark profound shifts in American society. The California Supreme Court is the most influential state court in the country. Other courts cite and follow its opinions more than any other. This decision will inspire other rulings that will knock down arbitrary barriers to the fundamental right to marry.

But this is not simply about the law. Americans believe in treating people fairly. With gay and lesbian married couples living in California, I know our neighbors in other states will see that marriage equality should be a familiar reality everywhere. Not eventually, but now. Because banning loving gay and lesbian couples from marrying doesn’t square with that most basic American value: fairness.

With this historic decision, California is not ahead of its time. We are right on time.

We are weeping tears of joy here and hope that you are, too. Congratulations, everyone!