Gay Marriage Ban Could be lifted in California

December 09, 2010

Proposition 8 Protest Sacromental

The Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco court could initiate a lifting of California’s gay marriage ban while keeping bans in other states intact.

Over two hours of arguments were heard yesterday regarding the state’s gay marriage ban. Equal marriage opponents were challenging a federal judge’s ruling that California’s ban was unconstitutional.

While arguments were heard about the ban violating the US Constitution, the judges seemed only interested in keeping a narrow focus on the case, limiting it to California.

Judge Stephen Reinhardt, a liberal, and Judge N Randy Smith, a conservative, of a three judge panel, decided on narrowing the scope of the case, paving the way for the case to be brought to the US Supreme Court.
 

Lawyers representing anti-gay groups said that maintaining the ban would not take away rights from gays and lesbians, only preserve the definition of marriage.

Lawyers also argued that gays and lesbians could be treated differently because of their inability to produce children like heterosexual couples.
 

The judges, however, challenged the gay marriage opponents as to whether they have the right to bring the case to California’s top officials since both the governor and the Attorney-General – Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown - said they would not defend the ban.

By doxiehaus (http://www.flickr.com/photos/doxiehaus/3018087100/) [CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons