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Same-sex marriage became legal in California when, on May 15, 2008, a 4-to-3 majority of the California Supreme Court nullified the state's Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as unconstitutional. The ruling made California the second U.S. jurisdiction, after Massachusetts, where gay couples can marry.

California's DOMA had been enacted via Proposition 22, an initiative placed on the March 2000 primary ballot by the late state senator William "Pete" Knight and his supporters. Alarmed by the state's enactment of same-sex domestic partnership legislation in 1999, Knight sought make the next step -- same-sex marriage -- inaccessible.

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roposition 22 reaffirmed a 1977 modification of state law asserting that California marriage contracts had to be "between a man and a woman," and changed the existing statute to prevent the state from recognizing same-sex marriages legally contracted elsewhere. California voters approved the measure by a 61 percent majority.

The state high court's May 2008 rejection of DOMA ended a battle that began in February 2004, when San Francisco's Mayor Gavin Newsom, openly questioning the Knight initiative's constitutionality, ordered the city clerk to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. By March 11, when the California Supreme Court halted the practice, about 4,000 same-sex couples had wed in San Francisco.

In August 2004, the state supreme court voided the San Francisco marriages without ruling on DOMA's validity. In response, six separate legal challenges were filed by the city of San Francisco, two dozen same-sex couples, and others.

The consolidated lawsuits went before San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer, who in March 2005 found DOMA both discriminatory and inconsistent with the constitutional right to marry the partner of one's choice.

In October 2006, however, the California Court of Appeal reversed Kramer's ruling, declaring that no constitutional right to same-sex marriage existed. Undeterred, the plaintiffs appealed that ruling to the state supreme court, and won.

The California ruling is in some respects broader than the 2003 same-sex marriage ruling in Massachusetts. California marriage rights will be available to non-residents. In contrast, Massachusetts residency requirements have been relaxed only slightly since 2004, when then-governor Mitt Romney invoked a 1913 anti-miscegenation law barring non-residents who cannot legally marry in their home states from marrying in Massachusetts.

Same-sex marriage became legal in California when, on May 15, 2008, a 4-3 majority of the California Supreme Court nullified the state's Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as unconstitutional. The ruling made California the second U.S. jurisdiction, after Massachusetts, where gay couples can marry.

California's DOMA had been enacted via Proposition 22, an initiative placed on the March 2000 primary ballot by the late state senator William "Pete" Knight and his supporters. Alarmed by the state's enactment of same-sex domestic partnership legislation in 1999, Knight sought make the next step -- same-sex marriage -- inaccessible.

Proposition 22 reaffirmed a 1977 modification of state law asserting that California marriage contracts had to be "between a man and a woman," and changed the existing statute to prevent the state from recognizing same-sex marriages legally contracted elsewhere. California voters approved the measure by a 61 percent majority.

The state high court's May 2008 rejection of DOMA ended a battle that began in February 2004, when San Francisco's Mayor Gavin Newsom, openly questioning the Knight initiative's constitutionality, ordered the city clerk to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. By March 11, when the California Supreme Court halted the practice, about 4,000 same-sex couples had wed in San Francisco.

In August 2004, the state supreme court voided the San Francisco marriages without ruling on DOMA's validity. In response, six separate legal challenges were filed by the city of San Francisco, two dozen same-sex couples, and others.

The consolidated lawsuits went before San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer, who in March 2005 found DOMA both discriminatory and inconsistent with the constitutional right to marry the partner of one's choice.

In October 2006, however, the California Court of Appeal reversed Kramer's ruling, declaring that no constitutional right to same-sex marriage existed. Undeterred, the plaintiffs appealed that ruling to the state supreme court, and won.

The California ruling is in some respects broader than the 2003 same-sex marriage ruling in Massachusetts. California marriage rights will be available to non-residents. In contrast, Massachusetts residency requirements have been relaxed only slightly since 2004, when then-governor Mitt Romney invoked a 1913 anti-miscegenation law barring non-residents who cannot legally marry in their home states from marrying in Massachusetts.

See also this issue:

Promiscuity's Freedom, or Marriage's Respectability?; Evaluating the trade in 1953

Marriage Rites vs. Family Rights ; Earlier activists sought to subvert marriage's elite status. Now, GLBT groups are clamoring for access to the club. Lawyer, activist, and professor Nancy Polikoff proposes a more equitable way.

California Marriage War; Will voters put asunder the legal opinion bringing same-sex couples together?