San Francisco, CA February 7, 2012 – Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a ruling in Perry v. Brown upholding the historic August 2010 decision of the Federal District Court that found Proposition 8 unconstitutional. In an opinion authored by Judge Stephen Reinhardt, the Ninth Circuit concluded that Proposition 8 violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Proposition 8 stripped gay and lesbian Californians of the fundamental freedom to marry.
"Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect in California, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples. The Constitution simply does not allow for laws of this sort," Judge Reinhardt wrote.
The American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) is the sole sponsor of the Perry case.
"Today the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed, as the courts have repeatedly throughout our nation's history, that singling out a class of citizens for discriminatory treatment is unfair, unlawful and violates basic American values," said AFER Board President Chad Griffin. "Like many other Americans, our plaintiffs want nothing more than to marry the person they love. Committed, loving couples and their families should not be denied this most fundamental freedom."
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