In June 2008, three California voters and Equality California, an organization dedicated to protecting the civil rights of LGBTQ people, filed a lawsuit in the California Supreme Court to remove Proposition 8 from the November ballot. Proposition 8 was a measure to change the California Constitution to eliminate the right to marry for same-sex couples. The lawsuit argued that the proponents of Proposition 8 did not follow the appropriate rules for revising the California Constitution.

The California Supreme Court issued an order on July 16, 2008, denying the petition to remove Proposition 8 from the ballot prior to the election.

NCLR’s co-counsel in the case were Heller Ehrman LLP; Lambda Legal; the ACLU Foundation of Northern California; the ACLU Foundation of Southern California; and the Law Office of David C. Codell.