California gay marriages cleared

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court cleared the way Wednesday for same sex marriages to resume in California as the justices, in a procedural ruling, turned away the defenders of Proposition 8.

Chief Justice John Roberts, speaking for the 5-4 majority,said the private sponsors of the 2008 ballot measure that limited marriage to the union of a man and a woman did not have legal standing to appeal after the measure was struck down by a federal judge in San Francisco.

“We have never before upheld the standing of a private party to defend the constitutionality of a state statute when state officials have chosen not to,” he said. “We decline to do so for the first time here.”

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Antonin Scalia and Elena Kagan joined to form the majority.

The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that Proposition 8 violated the constitutional guarantee of equal protection by stripping homosexual couples of a right they once had - and that heterosexual couples would continue to possess.

More than 18,000 same-sex couples got marriage licenses in California in the five months between a state Supreme Court ruling that gay marriages were legal and the 2008 passage of Proposition 8.

Usually, the governor and state’s lawyers defend state laws in federal court, but Gov. Jerry Brown and Attorney General Kamala Harris both refused to defend Proposition 8.

Several sponsors of the ballot measure stepped in to defend the law, but there were questions about whether they had legal standing to represent the state in court. Last fall, the high court agreed to hear the appeal from the sponsors of Proposition 8.

The court on Wednesday stopped short of declaring a constitutional right for homosexuals to marry, or even ruling directly on California’s voter-approved ban.

Roberts said the failure of officials in California to appeal the trial-court decision against them was the end of the matter. Proponents of Proposition 8 had suffered only a “generalized grievance” when the ballot initiative they had sponsored was struck down, the chief justice wrote, and they were not entitled to represent the state’s interests on appeal.

Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Sonia Sotomayor dissented, saying the court should have ruled on the constitutionality of the ban.

The ruling in the case, Hollingsworth v. Perry, erased the appeals court’s decision striking down Proposition 8.

As a formal matter, the decision sent the case back to the appeals court “with instructions to dismiss the appeal for lack of jurisdiction.” That means the trial court’s decision stands.

Same-sex marriage is legal in 12 states and the District of Columbia - representing 18 percent of the U.S. population. When gay marriage resumes in California, that figure will jump to 30 percent.

Gay-marriage advocates applauded the high court’s decision.

Hundreds of demonstrators, many carrying pro-gay marriage signs and rainbow-colored flags, crowded onto the steps of the Supreme Court, where members of the media camped out for three days to await the final rulings of the court’s term.

Supporters crowded around the two California couples challenging the ban, chanting “thank you” and “we love you.” Tourists on buses and on foot slowed to take pictures of the scene.

San Franciscans broke out in in cheers and hugs at the rotunda of Beaux Arts City Hall.

“It’s been a long road, many years, but gosh, it feels good to have love triumph over ignorance, to have equality triumph over discrimination,” San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee told the crowd.

President Barack Obama congratulated by telephone the people who challenged the California ban.

“Paul invited him to our wedding; he said OK,” Jeff Zarrillo of Burbank said outside the Supreme Court, referring to his partner Paul Katami.

The Supreme Court “made clear today that you have a right to marry, that there is no basis for discrimination,” David Boies, one of the lawyers representing the challengers to California’s Proposition 8, said outside the high court.

But opponents of same sex marriage said they remain hopeful that they can mount a political comeback, much as opponents of abortion used Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion, as a springboard to a more aggressive movement.

“Time is not on the side of those seeking to create same sex ‘marriage,’” said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. “As the American people are given time to experience the actual consequences of redefining marriage, the public debate and opposition to the redefinition of natural marriage will undoubtedly intensify.”

Brian Brown, the president of the National Organization for Marriage, vowed after the ruling to push for a federal constitutional ban on same sex marriage.

“Marriage - the union of husband and wife - will remain timeless, universal and special, particularly because children need mothers and fathers,” Austin Nimocks, another lawyer for a group that supported Proposition 8 in the case, said in a statement.

Gov. Brown said counties will begin issuing same-sex marriage licenses as soon as the appeals court implements Wednesday’s ruling.

“As soon as we get that go-live date, we are ready to go,” said San Francisco City Administrator Naomi Kelly, who’s ordered additional licenses printed. “We’re going to marry anyone who wants to get married that day.

We’ll open up at 8 and stay there until the very last person who wants to get married. We are ready for it and we are very excited.”

But 9th Circuit Court of Appeals spokesman Dave Madden said it likely will take at least 25 days before gay marriages resume in California, because it will take at least that long for the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to become official.

Madden said it’s the “general practice” of the appeals court to wait for the high court’s official ruling before taking any action.

Harris said she would ask the 9th Circuit to depart from its usual custom and issue a ruling allowing for gay marriages to begin sooner than the 25 days cited by the Supreme Court.

Madden said Wednesday that the court hadn’t received any request for an expedited ruling.

The Supreme Court said it may continue to bar gay marriages even beyond the 25-day period if proponents of Proposition 8 ask for a rehearing.

Information for this article was contributed by David G. Savage of the Tribune Washington Bureau; by Greg Stohr, Megan O’Neil, Roger Runningen, Alison Vekshin, Joel Rosenblatt and Esme E. Deprez of Bloomberg News; by Adam Liptak of The New York Times; by Nancy Benac, Lisa Leff, Sudhin Thanawala, Mark Sherman, Connie Cass, David Crary, Jessica Gresko, Bethan McKernan and Larry Neumeister of The Associated Press.