Majority Opinion
On May 26, 2009 the California Supreme Court reported its decision on the validity of Proposition 8 and the 18,000 same-sex marriages in question. The proposition was upheld, but existing marriages were allowed to stand. Both the majority and Justice Werdegard emphasized that the ruling applied specifically to the use of the designation "Marriage", and that the ruling left the domestic partnership institution as well as several protections from In re Marriage Cases completely unaffected. The majority opinion stated:
The Attorney General’s contention ... rests inaccurately upon an overstatement of the effect of Proposition 8 on both the fundamental constitutional right of privacy guaranteed by article I, section 1, and on the due process and equal protection guarantees of article I, section 7. As explained below, Proposition 8 does not abrogate any of these state constitutional rights, but instead carves out a narrow exception applicable only to access to the designation of the term “marriage,” but not to any other of “the core set of basic substantive legal rights and attributes traditionally associated with marriage . . .”
The majority also noted that "Proposition 8 must be understood as creating a limited exception to the state equal protection clause."
Read more about this topic: Strauss V. Horton, Decision
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