Proposition 8

Type & Purpose of Ballot Measure: Citizens Initiative, Constitutional Amendment to amend the state constitution to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry

Description:

• Changed the California Constitution to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry in California.
• Provided that only marriage between a man and a woman was valid or recognized in California.
• Over the next few years, potential revenue loss was predicted, mainly from sales taxes, totaling in the several tens of millions of dollars, to state and local governments.

Result: 4 November 2008 Proposition 8 passed in by 51% of the vote, stripping gay and lesbians couples their right to marry the person they love under the law.

• 4 August 2010, in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, Proposition 8 was ruled unconstitutional by US Federal District Judge Vaughn Walker.
• Perry v. Schwarzenegger, now named Dennis Hollingsworth, et al. v. Kristin Perry, et al., was appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States.
• On 26 June 2013 SCOTUS remanded the case back to the trial level, where Proposition 8 had been struck down as unconstitutional per Judge Walker’s 4 August 2010 ruling. (See Dennis Hollingsworth, et al. v. Kristin Perry, et al. above under Lawsuits – Resolved.)