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California court backs gay marriage

The California supreme court on Thursday ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, a decision that is sure to resonate in the presidential campaign and congressional elections.

In a 4-3 decision, the court overturned a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, and found that domestic partnerships are not a suitable substitute for marriage.

The opinion, written by Chief justice Ron George, cites a 1948 case overturning a ban on inter-racial marriage.

The court rejected arguments that marriage should be preserved for heterosexual couples because it had been so traditionally. “History alone is not invariably an appropriate guide for determining the meaning and scope of this fundamental constitutional guarantee,” it wrote.

The city of San Francisco, two dozen gay and lesbian couples, and gay rights groups sued in March 2004 after the court halted San Francisco’s month-long same-sex wedding march.

“Our state now recognises that an individual’s capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual’s sexual orientation,” the court wrote.

— © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2008

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