California Court Lifts Same-Sex Marriage Ban

Same-sex couple Maria Ydil (L) and Vanessa Judicpa embrace as they wait for the courts decision outside of the Philip Burton Federal building in San Francisco, California, USA. Photo by EPA/BGNES

The Federal District Court in San Francisco, USA, has lifted the ban on same-sex marriages in California.

The chief judge from the court, Vaughn R. Walker has ruled that the ban on same-sex marriage, aka Proposition 8, was anti-constitutional because it violated the principle for equal rights for homosexuals.

“Proposition 8 cannot withstand any level of scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause. Excluding same-sex couples from marriage is simply not rationally related to a legitimate state interest,” judge Walker has stated, as cited by The New York Times.

According to the US daily, the court's decision applies only to California and not to the other states that that have prohibited same-sex marriages. It also does not affect the country's federal law, which does not recognize such unions.

Proposition 8 was a 2008 California ballot measure that outlawed same-sex marriage. After it was passed with 52% of the vote, it became one of the central battlefields in the fight over same-sex marriage in the U.S.

However, according to The New York Times, the Wednesday's decision is only a temporary victory in the battle that will be settled by the Supreme Court.

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