Challenge of California ban on same-sex marriages dismissed: Supreme Court
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The U.S. Supreme Court has dismissed a constitutional challenge to a 2008 amendment to the California Constitution that bars the state from recognizing same-sex marriages on grounds that the group defending the amendment lacks the legal standing to do so in federal court.
As a result of the high court's 5-4 ruling, the case will be remanded to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals with instructions to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction.
Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said the U.S. Supreme Court has “never before upheld the standing of a private party to defend the constitutionality of a state statute when state officials have chosen not to. We decline to do so for the first time here.”
“No matter how deeply committed petitioners may be to upholding Proposition 8, that is not a particularized interest sufficient to create a case or controversy,” Chief Justice Roberts wrote.
Following a 2008 ruling by the California Supreme Court declaring that same-sex couples had the same fundamental right to marry under state law as opposite-sex couples, voters approved the Proposition 8 ballot initiative to amend the state's constitution to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman, thus overriding the court's decision.
Months later, two same-sex couples sued California in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California over the amendment after being denied state marriage licenses.
However, no representative of the state's government offered to defend the amendment's constitutional merits in court. Several original sponsors of Proposition 8 volunteered and later were certified to defend the statute on behalf of California voters.
