In re Marriage Cases
Filed in 2004; Supreme Court of CA Decision 5/15/2008
In 2004 the CA Supreme Court ordered SF Mayor Gavin Newsom to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, and NCLR along with the ACLU of Northern CA, Lambda Legal, Heller Ehrman LLP, and the Law Office of David C. Codell filed a case alleging that this ruling violated the state constitution’s equal protection guarantees and the fundamental right to marry. On May 15th, 2008, the California Supreme Court ruled that the state could no longer exclude same-sex couples from marriage, and held that LGBT people are entitled to the highest level of constitutional protection, which was the first time any high court had ever done so.
