A federal judge on Wednesday struck down California’s Proposition 8, the 2008 voter approved ban on gay marriage, calling it unconstitutional.
Walker, who presided over a 13 day trial earlier this year on the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the first in federal court to examine if states can prohibit gays from getting married without violating the U.S. constitutional guarantee of equality.
Walker’s decision is expected to be appealed to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and then up to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Attorneys for the Proposition 8 defense team, anticipating a decision against them, filed court papers Tuesday night, asking Walker for a stay of his ruling. The motion indicates that the Proposition 8 lawyers will immediately ask the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review Walker’s ruling.
Legal experts do not believe same-sex marriages will be permitted immediately because of the lengthy appeals ahead.
The trial, which included testimony from experts on marriage, sociology and politics, was instigated by a lawsuit filed by two same-sex couples who said that Proposition 8 violated their constitutional rights to equal protection and due process.
Proposition 8, which outlawed gay marriages in California five months after the state Supreme Court legalized them, passed with 52 percent of the vote in November 2008 following the most expensive campaign on a social issue in U.S. history.
Today’s ruling comes just weeks after a federal court in Boston ruled that a key part of the government’s Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional and took away a state’s right to define marriage.
The ruling came after Massachusetts sued the federal government over the law, saying it forced the state to discriminate against its citizens.
More on the Prop 8 ruling, including reaction from both sides, from LGBTQ Nation as it develops.
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