Supreme Court: Californians Will Vote on Whether to Ban Gay Marriages
By Diane Smith
12:08, July 17th 2008
36 votes
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The California Supreme Court denied the hearing to challenge the initiative to carry out an opinion poll to ban same sex marriages in the U.S.’s most populous state.

The court’s move clears the way for Californians to vote in November on whether to ban gay marriages in the state. The court decided unanimously and handed down the decision without elaborating. Since June 15, a month after the court overturned the state’s laws against same-sex marriages, several hundreds of marriage licenses have been issued to same-sex couples.

However, the ruling made by the court in May, might be overturned by a ballot initiative filed on June 2 by groups opposing gay marriages. The ballot aims to ban such unions in California’s constitution.

So, the Californians will consider a constitutional amendment in November that will once again prohibit the marriage between two persons of the same sex. The court did not give an explanation for its decision.

"This was a frivolous lawsuit. It was a desperate attempt to try to keep the voter initiative off the ballot in November," said Glen Lavy, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund representing the measure's supporters, The Associated Press reported.

If the amendment called Proposition 8 passes, it would overrule the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize gay marriages as of June 16 in California, the United States’ most densely inhabited state.

Gay rights groups such as Equality California and several others said the court’s decision was very disappointing. However, the gay rights groups issued a statement Wednesday emphasizing the fact that they are still confident that the initiative, akin to gay marriage bans enacted in 26 other states, will eventually fail.

"We're disappointed, but this ruling does not affect the campaign against Prop. 8 in any way. We have been focused on continuing the election and moving forward," the statement wrote.

The referendum will come into view on the same ballot as the presidential and congressional elections. It requires a simple majority to pass.



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