Court Upholds California's Gay Partnership Law
By REUTERS, from the NYTimes on the Web, April 4, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO -- An appeals court rejected on Monday a challenge to a California law that gives same-sex domestic partners many of the same rights as married couples.
The Alliance Defense Fund and other conservative groups brought the suit, arguing that a state measure on domestic partnership that became law in January was unconstitutional.
Their argument centered on a proposition approved by California voters in 2000 that defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
The Court of Appeal for the Third District in Sacramento backed a superior court judge's finding that the new law did not violate the 2000 Defense of Marriage Initiative.
"We conclude the trial judge was correct in ruling that the legislature's enactment of the domestic partners act did not constitute an amendment of the Defense of Marriage Initiative and, thus, that the legislature's action without separate voter approval did not violate ... the California
Constitution," the court wrote.
"Contrary to petitioners' suggestion, the legislature has not created a 'marriage' by another name or granted domestic partners a status equivalent to married
spouses."
Although gay rights groups welcomed the California domestic partnership law, they say it falls short of providing the same rights as married couples, and are separately fighting for the right to same-sex matrimony.
San Francisco allowed more than 4,000 gay couples to marry during a month-long period a year ago until the courts brought them to a halt.
The California Supreme Court ultimately ruled that those marriages were invalid.
Yet last month a San Francisco judge issued a preliminary ruling saying California's ban on homosexual marriage is unconstitutional.
Experts say years of legal battles over gay marriage and related issues are likely.
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