Same-Sex Marriage and Civil Unions

     On June 16, 2008, Supreme Court of delighted same-sex marriage supporters across the nation by declaring that the California Constitution guaranteed the right of all individuals to marry, regardless of their sexual orientation. In the same case, entitled In Re: The Marriage of Cases, the Court invalidated section 308.5. of the California Family Code, which stated, "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California," in its entirety.  Over the course of the next several months, thousands of same-sex couples married in California, including celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres and George Takei.

     Not willing to accept the Court's ruling lying down, opponents of same-sex marriage resurrected section 308.5, this time in the form of a ballot initiative to amend the California Constitution that used the exact same language as that section, now entitled Proposition 8. On November 4, 2009, the measure passed by a margin of 52 to 48 percent, placing the newly-amended Constitution in direct conflict with the Court's ruling in Cases, and setting off a firestorm of legal contradictions so convoluted that the Court asked California Attorney General Jerry Brown to submit a brief attempting to untangle the legal issues .