Date: 05-16-2008

Case Style: In re Marriage Cases

Case Number: S147999

Judge: George

Court: Supreme Court of California on appeal from the Superior Court of San Francisco County

Plaintiff's Attorney: Alliance Defense Fund, Benjamin W. Bull, Glen Lavy, Timothy Donald Chandler, Christopher R. Stovall, Dale Schowengerdt; Advocates for Faith and Freedom, Robert Henry Tyler; Law Offices of Terry L. Thompson, Terry L. Thompson; Law Offices of Andrew P. Pugno and Andrew P. Pugno for Plaintiff and Appellant Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Jay Alan Sekulow, Stuart J. Roth, Laura B. Hernandez, Vincent P. McCarthy, Kristina J. Wenberg; Schuler and Brown and John D. Hardy for American Center for Law & Justice as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Plaintiff and Appellant Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Stewart & Stewart and John Stewart for Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays and Evergreen International as Amici Curiae on behalf of Plaintiff and Appellant Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Liberty Counsel, Mathew D. Staver, Rena M. Lindevaldsen and Mary E. McAlister for Plaintiff and Appellant Campaign for California Families.

Kevin T. Snider and Matthew B. McReynolds for Pacific Justice Institute and Capitol Resource Institute as Amici Curiae on behalf of Plaintiffs and Appellants Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund and Campaign for California Families.

Bill Lockyer and Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorneys General, Manuel M. Medeiros, State Solicitor General, David S. Chaney, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Louis R. Mauro, Stacy Boulware Eurie and Christopher E. Krueger, Assistant Attorneys General, James M. Humes, Douglas J. Woods, Kathleen A. Lynch, Hirem M. Patel and Zackery P. Morazzini, Deputy Attorneys General, for Defendant and Appellant State of California.

Kenneth W. Starr; Kirton & McConkie and Alexander Dushku for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- Day Saints, California Catholic Conference, National Association of Evangelicals and Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America as Amici Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Appellant State of California.

Marriage Law Foundation and Monte N. Stewart for United Families International, Family Watch International and Family Leader Foundation as Amici Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Appellant State of California.

Natalie A. Panossian for Professors of Law Douglas W. Kmiec, Helen M. Alvare, George W. Dent, Jr., Stephen G. Calabresi, Steven B. Presser and Lynn D. Wardle as Amici Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Appellant State of California.

Mazur & Mazur, Janice R. Mazur and William E. Mazur, Jr., for Leland Traiman and Stewart Blandon as Amici Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Appellant State of California. Keker & Van Nest and Jon B. Streeter for Professor Jesse H. Choper as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Appellant State of California.

The Western Center for Law & Policy, Dean R. Broyles and James M. Griffiths for California Ethnic Religious Organizations for Marriage, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, African- American High Impact Leadership Coalition, Korean Church Coalition for North Korea Freedom, Council of Korean Churches in Southern California, Traditional Family Coalition, Chinese Family Alliance, America Chinese Evangelical Seminary, The Lord’s Grace Christian Church of Mountain View, Grace Gospel Christian Church at San Mateo, Mandarin Baptist Church, Home of Christ Church at Saratoga, Fremont Chinese Evangelical Free Church, West Valley Christian Alliance Church, Evangelical Free Church of San Francisco, San Francisco Agape Christian Church, HIS Foundation and Chinese Christians for Justice as Amici Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Appellant State of California.

Jeffrey N. Daly for Professors of Law John Coverdale, Scott Fitzgibbon, Martin R. Gardner, Kris W. Kobach, Earl M. Maltz, Laurence C. Nolan and John Randall Trahan as Amici Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Appellant State of California.

Wild, Carter & Tipton, Patrick J. Gorman; Thomas More Society, Thomas Brejcha and Paul Benjamin Linton for Knights of Columbus as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Appellant State of California.

The Claremont Institute Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, John C. Eastman; Institute for Marriage and Public Policy and Joshua K. Baker for Legal and Family Scholars James Q. Wilson, Douglas Allen, Hadley P. Arkes, David Blankenhorn, Steven G. Calabresi, Lloyd R. Cohen, David K. DeWolf, Edward J. Erler, Robert P. George, Bernard E. Jacob, William H. Jeynes, Leon R. Kass, Charles Kesler, Douglas W. Kmiec, Daniel Hays Lowenstein, David Popenoe, Stephen B. Presser, Katherine Shaw Spaht and Thomas G. West as Amici Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Appellant State of California.

Brian Chavez-Ochoa and Steven W. Fitschen for The National Legal Foundation as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Appellant State of California.

Derek L. Gaubatz and Roger Severino for The Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Appellant State of California.

Robert A. Destro and Lincoln C. Oliphant for African-American Pastors in California Reverend Joshua Beckley, Pastor Dr. Timothy Winters, Pastor Chuck Singleton and Pastor Dr. Raymond W. Turner as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Appellant State of California.

Defendant's Attorney: Allred, Maroko & Goldberg, Gloria Allred, Michael Maroko and John Steven West for Plaintiffs and Respondents Robin Tyler, Diane Olson, Troy Perry and Phillip De Blieck.

Heller Ehrman, Stephen V. Bomse, Richard Denatale, Christopher F. Stoll, David J. Simon, Ryan R. Tacorda; National Center for Lesbian Rights, Shannon Minter, Vanessa H. Eisemann, Melanie Rowen, Catherine Sakimura, Courtney Joslin; Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc., Jon W. Davidson, Jennifer C. Pizer; ACLU Foundation of Southern California, Christine P. Sun, Peter J. Eliasberg, Clare Pastore; ACLU Foundation of Northern California, Tamara Lange, Alan L. Schlosser, Alex M. Cleghorn; Steefel, Levitt & Weiss, Dena Narbaitz, Clyde J. Wadsworth; Law Office of David C. Codell and David C. Codell for Plaintiffs and Respondents Lancy Woo, Cristy Chung, Joshua Rymer, Tim Frazer, Jewelle Gomez, Diane Sabin, Myra Beals, Ida Matson, Arthur Frederick Adams, Devin Wayne Baker, Jeanne Rizzo, Pali Cooper, Karen Shain, Jody Sokolower, Janet Wallace, Deborah Hart, Corey Davis, Andre LeJeune, Rachel Lederman, Alexsis Beach, Stuart Gaffney, John Lewis, Phyllis Lyon, Del Martin, Sarah Conner, Gillian Smith, Margot McShane, Alexandra D'Amario, David Scott Chandler, Jeffery Wayne Chandler, Theresa Michelle Petry, Cristal Rivera-Mitchel, Our Family Coalition and Equality California.

Law Offices of Waukeen Q. McCoy, Waukeen Q. McCoy, Aldon L. Bolanos; Paul, Hanley & Harley and Jason E. Hasley for Plaintiffs and Respondents Gregory Clinton, Gregory Morris, Anthony Bernan, Andrew Neugenbauer, Stephanie O'Brien, Janet Levy, Joseph Faulkner, Arthur Healey, Kristen Anderson, Michele Bettega, Derrik Anderson and Wayne Edfors II.

Natalie F. P. Gilfoyle; Jenner & Block, Paul M. Smith, William M. Hohengarten and Anjan Choudhury for American Psychological Association, California Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association, National Association of Social Workers and National Association of Social Workers, California Chapter as Amici Curiae on behalf of Plaintiffs and Respondents.

O’Melveny & Myers, Peter Obstler, Nikhil Shanbhag, Flora Vigo, Jee Young You; John D. Trasvina, Cynthia A. Valenzuela; Law Office of Ellen Forman Obstler and Ellen Forman Obstler for Asian American Justice Center, Asian Pacific American Bar Association, Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Asian and Pacific Islander Lesbian, Bisexual Women and Transgender Network, Asian Pacific Islander Pride Council, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, Equal Justice Society, Japanese American Bar Association, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, Multicultural Bar Alliance of Los Angeles, People for the American Way Foundation, United Lesbians of African Heritage, Ventura Black Attorneys Association, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Aguilas, Bienestar Human Services, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, La Raza Centro Legal, National Black Justice Coalition, National Lawyers Guild of San Francisco and Zuna Institute as Amici Curiae on behalf of Plaintiffs and Respondents.

Description: In Lockyer v. City and County of San Francisco (2004) 33 Cal.4th 1055 (Lockyer), this court concluded that public officials of the City and County of San Francisco acted unlawfully by issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in the absence of a judicial determination that the California statutes limiting marriage to a union between a man and a woman are unconstitutional. Our decision in Lockyer emphasized, however, that the substantive question of the constitutional validity of the California marriage statutes was not before this court in that proceeding, and that our decision was not intended to reflect any view on that issue. (Id. at p. 1069; see also id. at p. 1125 (conc. opn. of Moreno, J.); id. at pp. 1132-1133 (conc. & dis. opn. of Kennard, J.); id. at p. 1133 (conc. & dis. opn. of Werdegar, J.).) The present proceeding, involving the consolidated appeal of six cases that were litigated in the superior court and the Court of Appeal in the wake of this court's decision in Lockyer, squarely presents the substantive constitutional question that was not addressed in Lockyer.

In considering this question, we note at the outset that the constitutional issue before us differs in a significant respect from the constitutional issue that has been addressed by a number of other state supreme courts and intermediate appellate courts that recently have had occasion, in interpreting the applicable provisions of their respective state constitutions, to determine the validity of statutory provisions or common law rules limiting marriage to a union of a man and a woman. (See, e.g., Conaway v. Deane (Md. 2007) 932 A.2d 571; Goodridge v. Dept. of Pub. Health (Mass. 2003) 798 N.E.2d 941; Lewis v. Harris (N.J. 2006) 908 A.2d 196; Hernandez v. Robles (N.Y. 2006) 855 N.E.2d 1; Baker v. State (Vt. 1999) 744 A.2d 864; Andersen v. King County (Wn. 2006) 138 P.3d 963; Standhardt v. Superior Court (Ariz.Ct.App. 2003) 77 P.3d 451; Morrison v. Sadler (Ind.Ct.App. 2005) 821 N.E.2d 15.) These courts, often by a one-vote margin (see, post, pp. 114-115, fn. 70), have ruled upon the validity of statutory schemes that contrast with that of California, which in recent years has enacted comprehensive domestic partnership legislation under which a same-sex couple may enter into a legal relationship that affords the couple virtually all of the same substantive legal benefits and privileges, and imposes upon the couple virtually all of the same legal obligations and duties, that California law affords to and imposes upon a married couple.2 Past California cases explain that the constitutional validity of a challenged statute or statutes must be evaluated by taking into consideration all of the relevant statutory provisions that bear upon how the state treats the affected persons with regard to the subject at issue. (See, e.g., Brown v. Merlo (1973) 8 Cal.3d 855, 862.) Accordingly, the legal issue we must resolve is not whether it would be constitutionally permissible under the California Constitution for the state to limit marriage only to opposite-sex couples while denying same-sex couples any opportunity to enter into an official relationship with all or virtually all of the same substantive attributes, but rather whether our state Constitution prohibits the state from establishing a statutory scheme in which both opposite-sex and same-sex couples are granted the right to enter into an officially recognized family relationship that affords all of the significant legal rights and obligations traditionally associated under state law with the institution of marriage, but under which the union of an opposite-sex couple is officially designated a "marriage" whereas the union of a same-sex couple is officially designated a "domestic partnership." The question we must address is whether, under these circumstances, the failure to designate the official relationship of same-sex couples as marriage violates the California Constitution.3

It also is important to understand at the outset that our task in this proceeding is not to decide whether we believe, as a matter of policy, that the officially recognized relationship of a same-sex couple should be designated a marriage rather than a domestic partnership (or some other term), but instead only to determine whether the difference in the official names of the relationships violates the California Constitution. We are aware, of course, that very strongly held differences of opinion exist on the matter of policy, with those persons who support the inclusion of same-sex unions within the definition of marriage maintaining that it is unfair to same-sex couples and potentially detrimental to the fiscal interests of the state and its economic institutions to reserve the designation of marriage solely for opposite-sex couples, and others asserting that it is vitally important to preserve the long-standing and traditional definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman, even as the state extends comparable rights and responsibilities to committed same-sex couples. Whatever our views as individuals with regard to this question as a matter of policy, we recognize as judges and as a court our responsibility to limit our consideration of the question to a determination of the constitutional validity of the current legislative provisions.

As explained hereafter, the determination whether the current California statutory scheme relating to marriage and to registered domestic partnership is constitutionally valid implicates a number of distinct and significant issues under the California Constitution.

First, we must determine the nature and scope of the "right to marry" - a right that past cases establish as one of the fundamental constitutional rights embodied in the California Constitution. Although, as an historical matter, civil marriage and the rights associated with it traditionally have been afforded only to opposite-sex couples, this court's landmark decision 60 years ago in Perez v. Sharp (1948) 32 Cal.2d 7114 - which found that California's statutory provisions prohibiting interracial marriages were inconsistent with the fundamental constitutional right to marry, notwithstanding the circumstance that statutory prohibitions on interracial marriage had existed since the founding of the state - makes clear that history alone is not invariably an appropriate guide for determining the meaning and scope of this fundamental constitutional guarantee.

The decision in Perez, although rendered by a deeply divided court, is a judicial opinion whose legitimacy and constitutional soundness are by now universally recognized.

As discussed below, upon review of the numerous California decisions that have examined the underlying bases and significance of the constitutional right to marry (and that illuminate why this right has been recognized as one of the basic, inalienable civil rights guaranteed to an individual by the California Constitution), we conclude that, under this state's Constitution, the constitutionally based right to marry properly must be understood to encompass the core set of basic substantive legal rights and attributes traditionally associated with marriage that are so integral to an individual's liberty and personal autonomy that they may not be eliminated or abrogated by the Legislature or by the electorate through the statutory initiative process. These core substantive rights include, most fundamentally, the opportunity of an individual to establish - with the person with whom the individual has chosen to share his or her life - an officially recognized and protected family possessing mutual rights and responsibilities and entitled to the same respect and dignity accorded a union traditionally designated as marriage. As past cases establish, the substantive right of two adults who share a loving relationship to join together to establish an officially recognized family of their own - and, if the couple chooses, to raise children within that family - constitutes a vitally important attribute of the fundamental interest in liberty and personal autonomy that the California Constitution secures to all persons for the benefit of both the individual and society.

Furthermore, in contrast to earlier times, our state now recognizes that an individual's capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual's sexual orientation, and, more generally, that an individual's sexual orientation - like a person's race or gender - does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights. We therefore conclude that in view of the substance and significance of the fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship, the California Constitution properly must be interpreted to guarantee this basic civil right to all Californians, whether gay or heterosexual, and to same-sex couples as well as to opposite-sex couples.5

In defending the constitutionality of the current statutory scheme, the Attorney General of California maintains that even if the constitutional right to marry under the California Constitution applies to same-sex couples as well as to opposite-sex couples, this right should not be understood as requiring the Legislature to designate a couple's official family relationship by the term "marriage," as opposed to some other nomenclature. The Attorney General, observing that fundamental constitutional rights generally are defined by substance rather than by form, reasons that so long as the state affords a couple all of the constitutionally protected substantive incidents of marriage, the state does not violate the couple's constitutional right to marry simply by assigning their official relationship a name other than marriage. Because the Attorney General maintains that California's current domestic partnership legislation affords samesex couples all of the core substantive rights that plausibly may be guaranteed to an individual or couple as elements of the fundamental state constitutional right to marry, the Attorney General concludes that the current California statutory scheme relating to marriage and domestic partnership does not violate the fundamental constitutional right to marry embodied in the California Constitution.

We need not decide in this case whether the name "marriage" is invariably a core element of the state constitutional right to marry so that the state would violate a couple's constitutional right even if - perhaps in order to emphasize and clarify that this civil institution is distinct from the religious institution of marriage - the state were to assign a name other than marriage as the official designation of the formal family relationship for all couples. Under the current statutes, the state has not revised the name of the official family relationship for all couples, but rather has drawn a distinction between the name for the official family relationship of opposite-sex couples (marriage) and that for same-sex couples (domestic partnership). One of the core elements of the right to establish an officially recognized family that is embodied in the California constitutional right to marry is a couple's right to have their family relationship accorded dignity and respect equal to that accorded other officially recognized families, and assigning a different designation for the family relationship of same-sex couples while reserving the historic designation of "marriage" exclusively for opposite-sex couples poses at least a serious risk of denying the family relationship of same-sex couples such equal dignity and respect. We therefore conclude that although the provisions of the current domestic partnership legislation afford same-sex couples most of the substantive elements embodied in the constitutional right to marry, the current California statutes nonetheless must be viewed as potentially impinging upon a same-sex couple's constitutional right to marry under the California Constitution.

Furthermore, the circumstance that the current California statutes assign a different name for the official family relationship of same-sex couples as contrasted with the name for the official family relationship of opposite-sex couples raises constitutional concerns not only under the state constitutional right to marry, but also under the state constitutional equal protection clause. In analyzing the validity of this differential treatment under the latter clause, we first must determine which standard of review should be applied to the statutory classification here at issue. Although in most instances the deferential "rational basis" standard of review is applicable in determining whether different treatment accorded by a statutory provision violates the state equal protection clause, a more exacting and rigorous standard of review - "strict scrutiny" - is applied when the distinction drawn by a statute rests upon a so-called "suspect classification" or impinges upon a fundamental right. As we shall explain, although we do not agree with the claim advanced by the parties challenging the validity of the current statutory scheme6 that the applicable statutes properly should be viewed as an instance of discrimination on the basis of the suspect characteristic of sex or gender and should be subjected to strict scrutiny on that ground, we conclude that strict scrutiny nonetheless is applicable here because (1) the statutes in question properly must be understood as classifying or discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation, a characteristic that we conclude represents - like gender, race, and religion - a constitutionally suspect basis upon which to impose differential treatment, and (2) the differential treatment at issue impinges upon a same-sex couple's fundamental interest in having their family relationship accorded the same respect and dignity enjoyed by an opposite-sex couple.

Under the strict scrutiny standard, unlike the rational basis standard, in order to demonstrate the constitutional validity of a challenged statutory classification the state must establish (1) that the state interest intended to be served by the differential treatment not only is a constitutionally legitimate interest, but is a compelling state interest, and (2) that the differential treatment not only is reasonably related to but is necessary to serve that compelling state interest. Applying this standard to the statutory classification here at issue, we conclude that the purpose underlying differential treatment of opposite-sex and same-sex couples embodied in California's current marriage statutes - the interest in retaining the traditional and well-established definition of marriage - cannot properly be viewed as a compelling state interest for purposes of the equal protection clause, or as necessary to serve such an interest.

A number of factors lead us to this conclusion. First, the exclusion of same-sex couples from the designation of marriage clearly is not necessary in order to afford full protection to all of the rights and benefits that currently are enjoyed by married opposite-sex couples; permitting same-sex couples access to the designation of marriage will not deprive opposite-sex couples of any rights and will not alter the legal framework of the institution of marriage, because same-sex couples who choose to marry will be subject to the same obligations and duties that currently are imposed on married opposite-sex couples. Second, retaining the traditional definition of marriage and affording same-sex couples only a separate and differently named family relationship will, as a realistic matter, impose appreciable harm on same-sex couples and their children, because denying such couples access to the familiar and highly favored designation of marriage is likely to cast doubt on whether the official family relationship of same-sex couples enjoys dignity equal to that of opposite-sex couples. Third, because of the widespread disparagement that gay individuals historically have faced, it is all the more probable that excluding same-sex couples from the legal institution of marriage is likely to be viewed as reflecting an official view that their committed relationships are of lesser stature than the comparable relationships of opposite-sex couples. Finally, retaining the designation of marriage exclusively for oppositesex couples and providing only a separate and distinct designation for same-sex couples may well have the effect of perpetuating a more general premise - now emphatically rejected by this state - that gay individuals and same-sex couples are in some respects "second-class citizens" who may, under the law, be treated differently from, and less favorably than, heterosexual individuals or opposite-sex couples. Under these circumstances, we cannot find that retention of the traditional definition of marriage constitutes a compelling state interest. Accordingly, we conclude that to the extent the current California statutory provisions limit marriage to opposite-sex couples, these statutes are unconstitutional.

I

On February 10, 2004, the Mayor of the City and County of San Francisco (City) sent a letter to the county clerk, directing that official to determine what changes should be made to the forms and documents used to apply for and issue marriage licenses, so that licenses could be provided to couples without regard to their gender or sexual orientation. In response, the county clerk designed revised forms for the marriage license application and for the license and certificate of marriage, and on February 12, 2004, the City began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

The following day, two separate actions were filed in San Francisco Superior Court seeking an immediate stay as well as writ relief, to prohibit the City's issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples. (Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund v. City and County of San Francisco (Super. Ct. S.F. City & County, No. CPF-04-503943) (hereafter Proposition 22 Legal Defense Fund); Thomasson v. Newsom (Super. Ct. S.F. City & County, No. CGC-04- 428794) (subsequently retitled as Campaign for California Families v. Newsom, and hereafter referred to as Campaign).) As noted, the Proposition 22 Legal Defense Fund and the Campaign actions are two of the six cases whose consolidated appeals are before us in the present proceeding. (Ante, p. 1, fn. 1.)

After the superior court declined to grant an immediate stay in the Proposition 22 Legal Defense Fund and the Campaign actions and the City continued to issue marriage licenses to, and solemnize and register marriages of, numerous same-sex couples, the California Attorney General and a number of taxpayers filed two separate petitions seeking to have this court issue an original writ of mandate, asserting that the City's actions were unlawful and warranted our immediate intervention. (Lockyer v. City and County of San Francisco, S122923; Lewis v. Alfaro, S122865.) On March 11, 2004, we issued an order to show cause in those original writ proceedings, and, pending our determination of both matters, directed City officials to enforce the existing marriage statutes and to refrain from issuing marriage licenses not authorized by such provisions. In addition, our March 11 order stayed all proceedings in the two cases then pending in San Francisco Superior Court (the Proposition 22 Legal Defense Fund and the Campaign actions), but at the same time indicated that the stay did not preclude the filing of a separate action in superior court raising a direct challenge to the constitutionality of California's current marriage statutes. (Lockyer, supra, 33 Cal.4th 1055, 1073-1074.)

Shortly after our March 11, 2004, order was issued, and while the consolidated Lockyer cases still were pending in this court, the City filed a writ petition and complaint for declaratory relief in superior court, seeking a declaration that (1) Family Code section 308.5 - an initiative statute proposed by Proposition 22 and enacted by the voters - does not apply to marriages solemnized in the State of California, and that (2) in any event, all California statutory provisions limiting marriage to unions between a man and a woman violate the California Constitution. (City and County of San Francisco v. State of California (Super. Ct. S.F. City & County, No. CGC-04-429539 (CCSF).)

Thereafter, two similar actions challenging the constitutionality of California's current marriage statutes were filed by a number of same-sex couples who maintain either that they are involved in committed relationships but are not permitted to marry in California, or that their out-of-state marriages are not recognized under California law. Several statewide organizations representing many thousands of same-sex couples joined as plaintiffs in these actions. (Woo v. Lockyer (Super. Ct. S.F. City & County, No. CPF-04-504038) (Woo); Tyler v. County of Los Angeles (Super. Ct. L.A. County, No. BS-088506) (Tyler).) According to declarations filed in the trial court, the named same-sex couples who are parties to these actions embody a diverse group of individuals who range from 30 years of age to more than 80 years of age, who come from various racial and ethnic backgrounds, and who are employed in (or have retired from) a wide variety of occupations, including pharmacist, military serviceman, teacher, hospital administrator, and transportation manager. Many of the couples have been together for well over a decade and one couple, Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, who are in their eighties, have resided together as a couple for more than 50 years. Many of the couples are raising children together.

Subsequently, the CCSF, Woo, and Tyler actions, along with the previously filed Proposition 22 Legal Defense Fund and Campaign actions, were coordinated, by order of a judge appointed by the Chair of the Judicial Council, into a single proceeding entitled In re Marriage Cases (JCCP No. 4365, hereafter referred to as the Marriage Cases). (Code Civ. Proc., § 404 et seq.) That coordination proceeding was assigned to San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard A. Kramer. A sixth action (Clinton v. State of California (Super. Ct. S.F. City & County, No. CGC-04-429548) (Clinton)), filed by a separate group of same-sex couples who similarly challenged the constitutionality of the current marriage statutes, later was added to the Marriage Cases coordination proceeding.

On August 12, 2004, while the Marriage Cases coordination proceeding was pending in the superior court, our court rendered its decision in Lockyer, supra, 33 Cal.4th 1055, concluding that the City officials had exceeded their authority in issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in the absence of a judicial determination that the statutory provisions limiting marriage to the union of a man and a woman are unconstitutional, and further concluding that the approximately 4,000 same-sex marriages performed in San Francisco prior to our March 11, 2004, order were void and of no legal effect. In light of these conclusions, we issued a writ of mandate compelling the City officials to comply with the requirements and limitations of the current marriage statutes in performing their duties under these statutes, and directing the officials to notify all same-sex couples to whom the officials had issued marriage licenses or registered marriage certificates that these same-sex marriages were void from their inception and a legal nullity. (Lockyer, supra, 33 Cal.4th at p. 1120.) Although we concluded in Lockyer that the City officials had acted unlawfully and that the same-sex marriages they had authorized were void, as already noted our opinion made clear that the substantive question of the constitutionality of California's statutory provisions limiting marriage to a man and a woman was not before us in the Lockyer proceeding and that we were expressing no opinion on this issue. (Id., at p. 1069; see also id. at p. 1125 (conc. opn. of Moreno, J.); id. at pp. 1132-1133 (conc. & dis. opn. of Kennard, J.); id. at p. 1133 (conc. & dis. opn. of Werdegar, J.).)

After the issuance of our decision in Lockyer, supra, 33 Cal.4th 1055, the superior court in the coordination matter proceeded expeditiously to solicit briefing and conduct a hearing on the validity, under the California Constitution, of California's statutes limiting marriage to a man and a woman. On April 13, 2005, the superior court issued its decision on this substantive constitutional question. Although plaintiffs argued that the statutes limiting marriage to a union of a man and a woman violated a number of provisions of the California Constitution - including the fundamental right to marry protected by the due process and privacy provisions of the California Constitution and the equal protection clause of that Constitution - the superior court confined its decision to the challenge that was based upon the equal protection clause. In analyzing the equal protection claim, the superior court determined that the statutes limiting marriage in California to opposite-sex couples properly must be evaluated under the strict scrutiny equal protection standard, because those statutory enactments rest upon a suspect classification (sex) and impinge upon a fundamental constitutional right (the right to marry). The court considered the various state interests and justifications proffered in support of those enactments, ultimately concluding that the statutory limitation of marriage to the union of a man and a woman not only does not satisfy the strict scrutiny standard, but also does not meet the more deferential rational basis test because, in the superior court's view, the differential treatment mandated by the statute does not further any legitimate state interest. In light of this conclusion, the court held that California's current marriage statutes are unconstitutional under the state Constitution insofar as they limit marriage to opposite-sex couples. The superior court entered judgment in favor of plaintiffs in each of the coordinated cases.

On appeal, the Court of Appeal, in a two-to-one decision, reversed the superior court's ruling on the substantive constitutional issue, disagreeing in a number of significant respects with the lower court's analysis of the equal protection issue. (Maj. opn. of McGuiness, P.J., joined by Parrilli, J.) First, the majority opinion in the Court of Appeal concluded the superior court erred in finding that the statutory provisions at issue impinge upon the fundamental constitutional right to marry, determining that this right properly should be interpreted to encompass only the right to marry a person of the opposite sex and that the constitutional right that plaintiffs actually sought to enforce is a right to same-sex marriage - a right that the Court of Appeal majority found lacking in any historical or precedential support. Second, the Court of Appeal majority rejected the superior court's conclusion that the California marriage statutes discriminate on the suspect basis of sex and for this reason are subject to strict scrutiny review, relying upon the circumstance that the statutes do not discriminate against either men or women or treat either of the genders differently from the other, but rather permit members of either gender to marry only a person of the opposite gender. Third, although the Court of Appeal majority found that California's marriage statutes realistically must be viewed as providing differential treatment on the basis of sexual orientation, the majority went on to hold that sexual orientation does not constitute a suspect classification for purposes of the state equal protection clause. The majority thus concluded that, contrary to the superior court's determination, the marriage statutes are not subject to strict scrutiny review but rather must be evaluated only under the deferential rational basis standard. Finally, applying that standard, the majority disagreed with the superior court and found that the marriage statutes' limitation of marriage to opposite-sex couples survives rational basis review, reasoning that the state has a legitimate interest in preserving the traditional definition of marriage and that the statute's classifications are rationally related to that interest. Accordingly, the Court of Appeal majority concluded that the superior court erred in finding the marriage statutes unconstitutional.

One of the appellate justices who joined the majority opinion also wrote a concurring opinion, addressing what her opinion described as "more philosophical questions presented by the challenging issues before us." (Conc. opn. of Parrilli, J.) The concurring justice observed that in her view, the domestic partnership 1 8 legislation "seems to recognize that at this stage, we do not know whether the state must name and privilege same-sex unions in exactly the same way traditional marriages are supported. The nuance at this moment in history is that the institution (marriage) and emerging institution (same-sex partnerships) are distinct and, we hope, equal. We hope they are equal because of the great consequences attached to each. Childrearing and passing on culture and traditions are potential consequences of each. To the degree that any committed relationship provides love and security, encourages fidelity, and creates a supportive environment for children it is entitled to respect. Whether it must be called the same, or supported by the state as equal to the traditional model, only time and patient attention to the models at issue will tell." Agreeing with the majority opinion, the concurring justice concluded that "[i]t is the legitimate business of the Legislature to attempt to close the distance between the parallel institutions (marriage and same-sex committed domestic partnerships) as they develop, and to address such concerns."

The third appellate court justice dissented from the majority's determination that the marriage statutes do not violate the California Constitution.

(Conc. & dis. opn. of Kline, J.) The dissenting justice (1) disagreed with the majority's conclusion that the same-sex couples challenging the marriage statutes are seeking recognition of a novel constitutional right to "same-sex marriage" rather than simply the application of an established fundamental constitutional right to marry a person of one's choice, (2) explained why, in his view, sexual orientation should be considered a suspect classification for purposes of equal protection principles, and (3) finally concluded that the challenged statutory restriction limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples "has no rational basis, let alone a compelling justification."

In light of the importance of the substantive constitutional issues presented, we granted review.

II

Before beginning our discussion of the significant constitutional issues presented by this case, we briefly address a much more limited procedural point relating only to the Proposition 22 Legal Defense Fund and the Campaign proceedings - the two actions that were filed immediately after San Francisco officials began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples and that were stayed by our court during the pendency of the Lockyer proceeding. The Court of Appeal concluded that although these two cases presented justiciable actions when they were initially filed, once this court issued its decision in Lockyer, supra, 33 Cal.4th 1055, these actions no longer presented justiciable controversies, because this court's decision in Lockyer effectively granted all of the relief to which the parties in those actions were entitled (including the prohibition of any continued illegal expenditure of public funds). Accordingly, the Court of Appeal determined that the superior court erred in failing, at that juncture, to dismiss these two actions as moot. Although the Fund and the Campaign take issue with the Court of Appeal's conclusion on this point, we agree with that determination.

In challenging this aspect of the Court of Appeal's ruling, the Fund maintains that notwithstanding this court's decision in Lockyer, the superior court properly could find that, because there is a continuing dispute between the Fund and the City over the scope and constitutionality of Family Code section 308.5 (the initiative statute adopted by the voters' approval of Proposition 22 in March 2000), the Proposition 22 Legal Defense Fund action constitutes a permissible vehicle by which under Code of Civil Procedure section 1060 the Fund can seek and obtain a declaratory judgment against the City with regard to that legal question.7 Past California decisions establish, however, that notwithstanding an advocacy group's strong political or ideological support of a statute or ordinance - and its disagreement with those who question or challenge the validity of the legislation - such a disagreement does not in itself afford the group the right to intervene formally in an action challenging the validity of the measure. (See, e.g., Socialist Workers etc. Committee v. Brown (1975) 53 Cal.App.3d 879, 891-892 [holding trial court did not err in rejecting Common Cause's request to intervene in action challenging statutes requiring disclosure of campaign contributions]; People ex rel. Rominger v. County of Trinity (1983) 147 Cal.App.3d 655, 662 [rejecting Sierra Club's claim that its strong interest in the enforcement of county's environmental laws was itself sufficient to afford it standing to intervene in action challenging the validity of an ordinance prohibiting the spraying of a specified chemical].) For similar reasons, we agree with the Court of Appeal that, absent a showing by the Fund that it possesses a direct legal interest that will be injured or adversely affected (which the Fund acknowledges has not been established here),8 the Fund's strong ideological disagreement with the City's views regarding the scope or constitutionality of Proposition 22 is not sufficient to afford standing to the Fund to maintain a lawsuit to obtain a declaratory judgment regarding these legal issues. (See, e.g., Newland v. Kizer (1989) 209 Cal.App.3d 647, 657; Zetterberg v. State Dept. of Public Health (1974) 43 Cal.App.3d 657, 662-663.) In this respect, the Fund is in a position no different from that of any other member of the public having a strong ideological or philosophical disagreement with a legal position advanced by a public entity that, through judicial compulsion or otherwise, continues to comply with a contested measure.9

The Campaign argues alternatively that the superior court, in permitting these two actions to go forward notwithstanding this court's opinion in Lockyer, properly could view that decision as providing only interim mandamus relief against the City, leaving the question whether the City should be permanently enjoined from granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples for resolution in the Proposition 22 Legal Defense Fund and the Campaign actions. Our decision in Lockyer, however, does not support such an interpretation. We did not purport to afford only interim relief, but rather granted to the petitioners before us the same full and final mandamus relief to which the Fund and the Campaign would have been entitled in the mandamus actions filed in superior court against City officials by each of those parties. (Lockyer, supra, 33 Cal.4th at p. 1120.) Although our 9 The amicus curiae brief filed in this court by the Pacific Justice Institute questions the right of the City to maintain a declaratory judgment action challenging the validity of the state's marriage statutes. That issue, however, was not raised in either the trial court or the Court of Appeal, and its resolution would not affect the validity of this proceeding or the substantive issue before us, because the numerous same-sex couples who have been parties to this coordination action from its inception unquestionably are authorized to bring and maintain the present challenge to the marriage statutes. We therefore do not consider it necessary or advisable for us to address, at the present juncture, this issue raised by amicus curiae for the first time in these proceedings.

decision recognized that the constitutionality of the marriage statutes remained open for judicial resolution in the future, we clearly indicated that the relief ordered constituted a final resolution of the mandamus action rather than simply an interim order. (Id. at p. 1112.) Thus, the decision of the superior court cannot be supported on the basis of the interim-remedy theory advanced by the Campaign.

Accordingly, on this initial procedural point, we agree with the Court of Appeal's conclusion that once this court's decision in Lockyer granted the mandamus relief sought by the Fund and the Campaign in their previously filed lawsuits against the City and its officials, the superior court should have dismissed those actions as moot.10

III

We now turn to the significant substantive constitutional issues before us. We begin by examining the relevant California statutory provisions relating to marriage and domestic partnership that lie at the heart of this controversy.

A

From the beginning of California statehood, the legal institution of civil marriage11 has been understood to refer to a relationship between a man and a woman. Article XI, section 14 of the California Constitution of 1849 - California's first Constitution - provided explicit constitutional protection for a "wife's separate property" (italics added),12 and the marriage statute adopted by the California Legislature during its first session clearly assumed that the marriage relationship necessarily involved persons of the opposite sex. (See Stats. 1850, ch. 140, § 2, p. 424 [listing, as marriages that would be considered "incestuous, and absolutely void," marriages "between brothers and sisters of the one half as well as the whole blood" and "between uncles and nieces, [or] aunts and nephews"; id., § 7, p. 424 ["No Judge . . . , or other person, shall join in marriage any male under the age of twenty-one years, or female under the age of eighteen years, without the consent of the parent or guardian"].)

California's current marriage statutes derive in part from this state's Civil Code, enacted in 1872, which was based in large part upon Field's New York Draft Civil Code. As adopted in 1872, former section 55 of the Civil Code provided that marriage is "a personal relation arising out of a civil contract, to which the consent of the parties capable of making it is necessary,"13 and former section 56 of that code, in turn, provided that "[a]ny unmarried male of the age of eighteen years or upwards, and any unmarried female of the age of fifteen years or upwards, and not otherwise disqualified, are capable of consenting to and consummating marriage." Although these statutory provisions did not expressly state that marriage could be entered into only by a man and a woman, the statutes clearly were intended to have that meaning and were so understood. (See 1 Ann. Civ. Code (1st ed. 1872, Haymond & Burch, commrs. annotators) note foll. § 55, p. 28.) Thus, this court's decisions of that era declared that the marriage relationship "is one ‘by which a man and woman reciprocally engage to live with each other during their joint lives, and to discharge toward each other the duties imposed by law on the relation of husband and wife' " (Mott v. Mott (1890) 82 Cal. 413, 416), and that the marriage contract is one " ‘by which a man and woman capable of entering into such a contract mutually engage with each other to live their whole lives together in the state of union which ought to exist between a husband and his wife.' " (Kilburn v. Kilburn (1891) 89 Cal. 46, 50.) Although the California statutes governing marriage and family relations have undergone very significant changes in a host of areas since the late 19th century, the statutory designation of marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman has remained unchanged.

In 1969, the Legislature adopted the Family Law Act (Stats. 1969, ch. 1608, § 8, pp. 3314-3344) which, among other matters, substantially revised the statutory provisions governing the dissolution of marriage, but retained and recodified former sections 55 and 56 of the Civil Code as Civil Code sections 4100 and 4101.14

In 1971, following the adoption of the 26th Amendment to the federal Constitution, which lowered the voting age in federal elections to 18 years of age, our state Legislature passed a bill lowering most statutory minimum ages in California law to that age. (Stats. 1971, ch. 1748, § 1, p. 3736 ["Except for [limited, specified exceptions], whenever, in any provision of law, the term ‘21 years of age' or any similar phrase regarding such age appears, it shall be deemed to mean ‘18 years of age' "].) As part of this legislation, the provisions of Civil Code section 4101, subdivision (a), which previously had set the age of consent for marriage for men at 21 years of age and for women at 18 years of age, were modified to provide a uniform age of consent of 18 years of age for both genders. In revising the language of section 4101 to equalize the minimum age for men and women, the 1971 legislation eliminated references to "male" and "female," so that section 4101, subdivision (a), as amended in 1971, stated simply that "[a]ny unmarried person of the age of 18 years or upwards, and not otherwise disqualified, is capable of consenting to and consummating marriage." (Stats. 1971, ch. 1748, § 26, p. 3747.) There is no indication in the legislative history of the 1971 enactment, however, that the change in section 4101 was intended to authorize marriage of two persons of the same sex, and numerous other marriage statutes, reflecting the long-standing understanding that marriage under California law refers to a union between a man and a woman, remained unchanged. (See, e.g., Civ. Code, former § 4213 (now Fam. Code, § 500) [when unmarried persons, not minors, have been living together "as man and wife," they may, without a license, be married by any clergymember]; Civ. Code, former § 4400 (now Fam. Code, § 2200) ["Marriages between . . . brothers and sisters . . . , . . . between uncles and nieces or aunts and nephews, are incestuous, and void from the beginning"]; Civ. Code, former § 4425 (now Fam. Code, § 2210) [a marriage is voidable if "[e]ither party was of unsound mind, unless such party, after coming to reason, freely cohabited with the other as husband and wife"].)

In the mid-1970's, several same-sex couples sought marriage licenses from county clerks in a number of California counties, relying in part upon the 1971 change in the language of Civil Code section 4101, subdivision (a), noted above. All of the county clerks who were approached by these same-sex couples denied the applications, but in order to eliminate any uncertainty as to whether the then existing California statutes authorized marriage between two persons of the same sex, legislation was introduced in 1977 at the request of the County Clerks' Association of California to amend the provisions of sections 4100 and 4101 to clarify that the applicable California statutes authorized marriage only between a man and a woman. (Stats. 1977, ch. 339, § 1, p. 1295, introduced as Assem. Bill No. 607 (1977-1978 Reg. Sess.); see Sen. Com. on Judiciary, Analysis of Assem. Bill No. 607 (1977-1978 Reg. Sess.) as amended May 23, 1977, p. 1; Governor's Legal Affairs Off., Enrolled Bill Rep. on Assem. Bill No. 607 (1977-1978 Reg. Sess.) Aug. 18, 1977, p. 1.)

The 1977 legislation added the phrase "between a man and a woman" to the first sentence of former section 4100, so that the sentence read: "Marriage is a personal relation arising out of a civil contract between a man and a woman, to which the consent of the parties capable of making that contract is necessary." The measure also revised the language of former section 4101 to reintroduce the references to gender that had been eliminated in 1971. As we explained in Lockyer, supra, 33 Cal.4th 1055, 1076, footnote 11: "The legislative history of the [1977] measure makes its objective clear. (See Sen. Com. on Judiciary, Analysis of Assem. Bill No. 607 (1977-1978 Reg. Sess.) as amended May 23, 1977, p. 1 [‘The purpose of the bill is to prohibit persons of the same sex from entering lawful marriage'].)" In 1992, when the Family Code was enacted, the provisions of former sections 4100 and 4101 of the Civil Code, as amended in 1977, were reenacted without change as Family Code sections 300 and 301, respectively. (Stats. 1992, ch. 162, § 10, p. 474.)

Accordingly, Family Code section 300 currently provides in relevant part: "Marriage is a personal relation arising out of a civil contract between a man and a woman, to which the consent of the parties capable of making that contract is necessary."15 In light of its language and legislative history, all parties before us agree that section 300 limits marriages that lawfully may be performed in California to marriages of opposite-sex couples.

There is no similar agreement between the parties, however, as to the meaning and scope of a second provision of the Family Code - section 308.5 - that also contains language limiting marriage to a union between a man and a woman. Section 308.5, an initiative statute submitted to the voters of California as Proposition 22 at the March 7, 2000, primary election and approved by the voters at that election, provides in full: "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." Plaintiffs maintain that section 308.5 should not be interpreted to apply to or to limit marriages entered into in California, but instead to apply only to marriages entered into in another jurisdiction; plaintiffs take the position that although this provision prohibits California from recognizing out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples, it should not be interpreted to speak to or control the question of the validity of marriages performed in California. The Proposition 22 Legal Defense Fund and the Campaign contest plaintiffs' proposed interpretation of section 308.5, maintaining that the statute properly must be interpreted to apply to and to limit both out-of-state marriages and marriages performed in California.

As already noted, it is clear that section 300 in itself limits marriages performed in California to opposite-sex couples, but the proper interpretation of section 308.5 nonetheless is quite significant because, unlike section 300, section 308.5 is an initiative statute - a measure that, under the provisions of article II, section 10, subdivision (c) of the California Constitution, cannot be modified by the Legislature without submitting the proposed modification to a vote of the people.16 Accordingly, if section 308.5 applies to marriages performed in California as well as to out-of-state marriages, any measure passed by the Legislature that purports to authorize marriages of same-sex couples in California would have to be submitted to and approved by the voters before it could become effective.

Although the Court of Appeal thought it unnecessary to determine the proper scope of section 308.5 in the present proceeding, in our view it is both appropriate and prudent to address the meaning of that statute at this juncture, both to ensure that our resolution of the constitutional issue before us is rendered with a full and accurate understanding of the source of California's current limitation of marriage to a union between a man and a woman, and to eliminate any uncertainty and confusion regarding the Legislature's ability or inability to authorize the marriage of same-sex couples in California without a confirming vote of the electorate, as the Legislature recently has attempted to do.17

For the reasons discussed below, we conclude that in light of both the language and the purpose of section 308.5, this provision reasonably must be interpreted to apply both to marriages performed in California and those performed in other jurisdictions.

First, as already noted, section 308.5 provides in full: "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." This statutory language does not purport to limit the statute's application to out-of-state marriages or to draw any distinction between in-state and out-of-state marriages. On the contrary, the language of the statute - at least on its face - suggests that the statute was intended to apply not only to the recognition of out-of-state marriages, but also to specify more broadly that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid in California.

Although plaintiffs acknowledge the wording of section 308.5 could be interpreted to apply to both in-state and out-of-state marriages, they maintain this language is ambiguous when one takes into account the location of the provision in the Family Code - its sequence in immediately following section 308, which relates specifically to out-of-state marriages.18 Plaintiffs point out that section 308 employs the term "valid" with specific reference to out-of-state marriages, and they maintain that, as a consequence, the use of the word "valid" (along with the word "recognized") in section 308.5 is not inconsistent with an interpretation of the statute that limits its application to out-of-state marriages.

In view of the asserted ambiguity of the statute, plaintiffs urge this court to consider the measure's purpose as reflected in the initiative's "legislative history."

In this regard, plaintiffs maintain that the arguments relating to Proposition 22 set forth in the voter information guide indicate that this initiative measure was prompted by the proponents' concern that other states and nations might authorize marriages of same-sex couples, and by the proponents' desire to ensure that California would not recognize such marriages. (See Voter Information Guide, Primary Elec. (Mar. 7, 2000) arguments in favor of and against Prop. 22, pp. 52- 53; see also Armijo v. Miles (2005) 127 Cal.App.4th 1405, 1422-1424.) Plaintiffs assert that in light of this objective, and the circumstance that when Proposition 22 was submitted to the electorate the provisions of section 308.5 were not needed to establish a limitation on marriages performed in California because section 300 already specified that marriage in California is limited to opposite-sex couples, section 308.5 should be interpreted to apply only to out-of-state marriages and not to marriages solemnized in California.

Although we agree with plaintiffs that the principal motivating factor underlying Proposition 22 appears to have been to ensure that California would not recognize marriages of same-sex couples that might be validly entered into in another jurisdiction, we conclude the statutory provision proposed by this initiative measure and adopted by the voters - which, we note again, provides in full that "[o]nly marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California" - cannot properly be interpreted to apply only to marriages performed outside of California. Unlike section 308, section 308.5 itself contains no language indicating that the statute is directed at and applies only to marriages performed outside of California. Further, because section 308.5 states both that only a marriage between a man and a woman is "recognized" in California and also that only a marriage between a man and a woman is "valid" in California, the average voter is likely to have understood the proposed statute to apply to marriages performed in California as well as to out-of-state marriages.19

Nothing in the ballot materials or other background of the initiative indicates that its proponents intended to limit its scope to out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples and leave the California Legislature free to adopt a different rule validating the marriages of same-sex couples in California. Indeed, in view of the thrust of the measure as explained in the ballot arguments supporting the proposed initiative and rebutting the argument against it, it would be unreasonable to conclude that the measure was intended (and should be interpreted) to leave the Legislature free to revise California law to authorize the marriage of same-sex couples. (See Voter Information Guide, Primary Elec. (Mar. 7, 2000) argument in favor of Prop. 22, p. 52 ["Proposition 22 is exactly 14 words long: ‘Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.' [] That's it! No legal doubletalk, no hidden agenda. Just common sense. Marriage should be between a man and a woman. [] . . . [] It's tough enough for families to stay together these days. Why make it harder by telling children that marriage is just a word anyone can re-define again and again until it no longer has any meaning?" (original italics)]; id., rebuttal to argument against Prop. 22, p. 53 [" Opponents say anybody supporting traditional marriage is guilty of extremism, bigotry, hatred and discrimination towards gays, lesbians and their families. [] That's unfair and divisive nonsense. [] THE TRUTH IS, we respect EVERYONE'S freedom to make lifestyle choices, but draw the line at re-defining marriage for the rest of society. [] . . . [] . . . ‘YES' on 22 sends a clear, positive message to children that marriage between a man and a woman is a valuable and respected institution, now and forever" (capitalization in original)].) Accordingly, we agree with the conclusion of the Court of Appeal in Knight v. Superior Court, supra, 128 Cal.App.4th 14, 23-24, that section 308.5 was intended to ensure "that California will not legitimize or recognize same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions . . . and that California will not permit same-sex partners to validly marry within the state." (Italics added.)20

Second, not only does this appear to be the most reasonable interpretation of section 308.5 in light of the statute's language and purpose, but serious constitutional problems under the privileges and immunities clause and the full faith and credit clause of the federal Constitution would be presented were section 308.5 to be interpreted as creating a distinct rule for out-of-state marriages as contrasted with in-state marriages. Under plaintiffs' proposed interpretation, section 308.5 would prohibit the state from recognizing the marriages of same-sex couples lawfully solemnized in other states without resubmitting the question to the voters and obtaining a confirming vote of the electorate, but would permit the state to recognize the validity of marriages of same-sex couples performed in California by legislative action alone without a vote of the electorate, raising the very real possibility that the state could approve the validity of marriages of same- sex couples that are performed in California while continuing to deny recognition to marriages of same-sex couples that are lawfully performed in another state. (See, ante, at pp. 29-30, fn. 17.) Imposing such discriminatory treatment against out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples, as contrasted with marriages of samesex couples performed within the state, would be difficult to square with governing federal constitutional precedents. (See, e.g., Hicklin v. Orbeck (1978) 437 U.S. 518, 523-526; Toomer v. Witsell (1948) 334 U.S. 385, 398-399.) Accordingly, it is appropriate to interpret the limitations imposed by section 308.5 as applicable to marriages performed in California as well as to out-of-state marriages, in order to avoid the serious federal constitutional questions that would be posed by a contrary interpretation. (Accord, NBC Subsidiary (KNBC-TV), Inc. v. Superior Court (1999) 20 Cal.4th 1178, 1216.)21

In sum, we conclude that California's current statutory restriction of marriage to a couple consisting of a man and a woman rests upon the provisions of both section 300 and section 308.5. Plaintiffs' constitutional challenge thus must be viewed as relating to the limitation embodied in each of these statutory provisions.

B

Although California statutes always have limited and continue to limit marriage to opposite-sex couples, as noted at the outset of this opinion California recently has enacted comprehensive domestic partnership legislation that affords same-sex couples the opportunity, by entering into a domestic partnership, to obtain virtually all of the legal benefits, privileges, responsibilities, and duties that California law affords to and imposes upon married couples. The recent comprehensive domestic partnership legislation constitutes the culmination of a gradual expansion of rights that have been made available in this state to same-sex couples who choose to register as domestic partners. We briefly review the history of domestic partnership legislation in California.

In 1999, the Legislature enacted the initial legislation creating a statewide domestic partnership registry. (Stats. 1999, ch. 588, § 2 [adding Fam. Code, §§ 297-299.6].) In adopting this legislation, "California became one of the first states to allow cohabitating adults of the same sex to establish a ‘domestic partnership' in lieu of the right to marry." (Holguin v. Flores (2004) 122 Cal.App.4th 428, 433.) The 1999 legislation defined "domestic partners" as "two adults who have chosen to share one another's lives in an intimate and committed relationship of mutual caring." (§ 297, subd. (a).) In addition to other requirements for registration as domestic partners, the legislation provided that a couple must share a common residence and agree to be jointly responsible for each other's basic living expenses incurred during the domestic partnership, be at least 18 years of age and unrelated by blood in a way that would prevent them from being married to each other, not be married or a member of another domestic partnership, and either be persons of the same sex or at least one of the persons must be more than 62 years of age. (§ 297, subd. (b).) The 1999 legislation, however, afforded those couples who register as domestic partners only limited substantive benefits, granting domestic partners specified hospital visitation privileges (Stats. 1999, ch. 588, § 4 [adding Health & Saf. Code, § 1261]), and authorizing the state to provide health benefits to the domestic partners of some state employees (Stats. 1999, ch. 588, § 3 [adding Gov. Code, §§ 22867-22877]). The following year, the Legislature included domestic partners within the category of persons granted access to specially designed housing reserved for senior citizens. (Stats. 2000, ch. 1004, §§ 3, 3.5 [amending Civ. Code, § 51.3].)

In 2001, the Legislature expanded the scope of the benefits afforded to couples who register as domestic partners, providing a number of additional significant rights, including the right to sue for wrongful death, to use employee sick leave to care for an ill partner or an ill child of one's partner, to make medical decisions on behalf of an incapacitated partner, to receive unemployment benefits if forced to relocate because of a partner's job, and to employ stepparent adoption procedures to adopt a partner's child. (Stats. 2001, ch. 893, §§ 1-60.) In 2002, the Legislature equalized the treatment of registered domestic partners and married spouses in a few additional areas. (See Stats. 2002, ch. 447, §§ 1-3 [amending Prob. Code, § 6401 to provide automatic inheritance of a portion of a deceased partner's separate property]; id., ch. 412, § 1 [amending Prob. Code, § 21351 to add domestic partners to the list of relationships exempted from the prohibition against being a beneficiary of a will that the beneficiary helped draft]; id., ch. 901, §§ 1-6 [amending various provisions of the Unemp. Ins. Code to provide employees six weeks of paid family leave to care for a sick spouse or domestic partner].)

Thereafter, in 2003, the Legislature dramatically expanded the scope of the rights of domestic partners in California by enacting comprehensive domestic partnership legislation: the California Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act of 2003 (hereafter Domestic Partner Act). (Stats. 2003, ch. 421, introduced as Assem. Bill No. 205 (2003-2004 Reg. Sess.).) The Legislature set forth the purpose of this act in section 1 (an uncodified provision) of the legislation, declaring: "This act is intended to help California move closer to fulfilling the promises of inalienable rights, liberty, and equality contained in Sections 1 and 7 of Article 1 of the California Constitution by providing all caring and committed couples, regardless of their gender or sexual orientation, the opportunity to obtain essential rights, protections, and benefits and to assume corresponding responsibilities, obligations, and duties and to further the state's interests in promoting stable and lasting family relationships, and protecting Californians from the economic and social consequences of abandonment, separation, the death of loved ones, and other life crises." (Stats. 2003, ch. 421, § 1, subd. (a).) Finding that "many lesbian, gay, and bisexual Californians have formed lasting, committed, and caring relationships with persons of the same sex," the Legislature concluded that "[e]xpanding the rights and creating responsibilities of registered domestic partners would further California's interests in promoting family relationships and protecting family members during life crises, and would reduce discrimination on the bases of sex and sexual orientation in a manner consistent with the requirements of the California Constitution." (Stats. 2003, ch. 421, § 1, subd. (b).) The Legislature further specified that the provisions of the Domestic Partner Act "shall be construed liberally in order to secure to eligible couples who register as domestic partners the full range of legal rights, protections and benefits, as well as all of the responsibilities, obligations, and duties to each other, to their children, to third parties and to the state, as the laws of California extend to and impose upon spouses." (Italics added.) (Stats. 2003, ch. 421, § 15.) To effectuate this legislative purpose, the 2003 Domestic Partner Act amended the existing statutory provisions relating to domestic partnership by adding several entirely new provisions to the Family Code, most significantly section 297.5, which the legislation provided would become operative on January 1, 2005. (Stats. 2003, ch. 421, § 14.) Section 297.5, subdivision (a), provides in broad and sweeping terms: "Registered domestic partners shall have the same rights, protections, and benefits, and shall be subject to the same responsibilities, obligations, and duties under law, whether they derive from statutes, administrative regulations, court rules, government policies, common law, or any other provisions or sources of law, as are granted to and imposed upon spouses." (Italics added.)22

Further, as we noted in Koebke v. Bernardo Heights Country Club (2005) 36 Cal.4th 824, 838-839 (Koebke), other subdivisions of section 297.5 similarly effectuate the Legislature's intent "by using the broadest terms possible to grant to, and impose upon, registered domestic partners the same rights and responsibilities as spouses in specified areas of laws whether they are current, former or surviving domestic partners. For example, pursuant to section 297.5, subdivision (c), a ‘surviving registered domestic partner, [upon] the death of the other partner,' is granted all the same rights and is subject to all the same responsibilities, from whatever source in the law, as those ‘granted to and imposed upon a widow or a widower.' Similarly, section 297.5, subdivision (d) states: ‘The rights and obligations of registered domestic partners with respect to a child of either of them shall be the same as those of spouses. The rights and obligations of former or surviving registered domestic partners with respect to a child of either of them shall be the same as those of former or surviving spouses.' Subdivision (e) requires that, ‘[t]o the extent that provisions of California law adopt, refer to, or rely upon . . . federal law' and that this reliance on federal law would require domestic partners to be treated differently than spouses, ‘registered domestic partners shall be treated by California law as if federal law recognized a domestic partnership in the same manner as California law.' (§ 297.5, subd. (e).)" We concluded in Koebke, supra, 36 Cal.4th 824, 839, that "[i]t is clear from both the language of section 297.5 and the Legislature's explicit statements of intent that a chief goal of the Domestic Partner Act is to equalize the status of registered domestic partners and married couples."

Although the Domestic Partner Act generally equalized the treatment under California law of registered domestic partners and married couples, there was one significant area - state income taxes - in which the 2003 enactment did not provide for equal treatment. Section 297.5, former subdivision (g) - a part of the 2003 act - provided in this regard: "Notwithstanding this section, in filing their state income tax returns, domestic partners shall use the same filing status as is used on their federal income tax returns, or that would have been used had they filed federal income tax returns. Earned income may not be treated as community property for state income tax purposes."

In 2006, the Legislature eliminated this disparity in the treatment of registered domestic partners and married couples with regard to state income taxes by amending section 297.5 to delete the provisions of former subdivision (g) of section 297.5 (and to renumber the subsequent subdivisions of section 297.5). (Stats. 2006, ch. 802, § 2.) The 2006 legislation specifically declared that "[i]t is the intent of the Legislature in enacting this bill that the inconsistency between registered domestic partners and spouses with respect to state income taxation be removed, registered domestic partners be permitted to file their income tax returns jointly or separately on terms similar to those governing spouses, and the earned income of registered domestic partners be recognized appropriately as community property. As a result of this bill, registered domestic partners who file separate income tax returns each shall report one-half of the combined income earned by both domestic partners, as spouses do, rather than their respective individual incomes for the taxable year." (Stats. 2006, ch. 802, § 1, subd. (d).)

Most recently, the Legislature passed and the Governor signed into law a bill requiring the Declaration of Domestic Partnership form to contain a section affording either party or both parties the option of a change of name as part of the registration process. (Stats. 2007, ch. 567, introduced as Assem. Bill No. 102 (Reg. Sess. 2007-2008) signed Oct. 12, 2007.)

Although the preamble to the 2003 Domestic Partner Act suggests that the proponents of this legislation did not view the enactment as the final or ultimate legislative step with regard to the official status available to same-sex couples (see Stats. 2003, ch. 421, § 1, subd. (a) ["This act is intended to help California move closer to fulfilling the promises of inalienable rights, liberty, and equality contained in Sections 1 and 7 of Article 1 of the California Constitution . . ." (italics added)]),23 nonetheless (by virtue of the explicit provisions of the Domestic Partner Act) under the current governing California statute, registered domestic partners generally "have the same rights, protections, and benefits, and [are] subject to the same responsibilities, obligations, and duties under law . . . as are granted to and imposed upon spouses." (§ 297.5, subd. (a).)24

Of course, although the Domestic Partner Act generally affords registered domestic partners the same substantive benefits and privileges and imposes upon them the same responsibilities and duties that California law affords to and imposes upon married spouses, the act does not purport to (and lawfully could not) modify the applicable provisions of federal law, which currently do not provide for domestic partnerships and which define marriage, for purposes of federal law, as the union of a man and a woman. (See 1 U.S.C. § 7.)25 In light of the current provisions of federal law, the many federal benefits (and the amount of those benefits) granted to a married person or to a married couple on the basis of their married status are not available to registered domestic partners. Included within this category are significant benefits such as those relating to Social Security, Medicare, federal housing, food stamps, federal military and veterans' programs, federal employment programs, and filing status for federal income tax purposes. All of these important federal benefits, however, also would be denied to same-sex couples even if California designated the official union of such couples a marriage rather than a domestic partnership, because, as noted, federal law defines marriage for purposes of federal law as "only a legal union between one man and one woman." (1 U.S.C. § 7.)26

Thus, in sum, the current California statutory provisions generally afford same-sex couples the opportunity to enter into a domestic partnership and thereby obtain virtually all of the benefits and responsibilities afforded by California law to married opposite-sex couples.

While acknowledging that the Domestic Partner Act affords substantial benefits to same-sex couples, plaintiffs repeatedly characterize that legislation as granting same-sex couples only the "material" or "tangible" benefits of marriage. At least in some respects, this characterization inaccurately minimizes the scope and nature of the benefits and responsibilities afforded by California's domestic partnership law. The broad reach of this legislation extends to the extremely wide network of statutory provisions, common law rules, and administrative practices that give substance to the legal institution of civil marriage, including, among many others, various rules and policies concerning parental rights and responsibilities affecting the raising of children, mutual duties of respect, fidelity and support, the fiduciary relationship between partners, the privileged nature of confidential communications between partners, and a partner's authority to make health care decisions when his or her partner is unable to act for himself or herself. These legal rights and responsibilities embody more than merely the "material" or "tangible" financial benefits that are extended by government to married couples. As we explained in Koebke, supra, 36 Cal.4th 824, 843: "[T]he decision . . . to enter into a domestic partnership is more than a change in the legal status of individuals . . . . [T]he consequence[] of the decision is the creation of a new family unit with all of its implications in terms of personal commitment as well as legal rights and obligations."

The nature and breadth of the rights afforded same-sex couples under the Domestic Partner Act is significant, because under California law the scope of that enactment is directly relevant to the question of the constitutional validity of the provisions in California's marriage statutes limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples. As this court explained in Brown v. Merlo, supra, 8 Cal.3d 855, 862: "In determining the scope of the class singled out for special burdens or benefits, a court cannot confine its view to the terms of the specific statute under attack, but must judge the enactment's operation against the background of other legislative, administrative and judicial directives which govern the legal rights of similarly situated persons. As the United States Supreme Court recognized long ago: ‘The question of constitutional validity is not to be determined by artificial standards [confining review "within the four corners" of a statute]. What is required is that state action, whether through one agency or another, or through one enactment or more than one, shall be consistent with the restrictions of the Federal Constitution.' [Citations.]"

Accordingly, the provisions of both the current marriage statutes and the current domestic partnership statutes must be considered in determining whether the challenged provisions of the marriage statutes violate the constitutional rights of same-sex couples guaranteed by the California Constitution.27

IV

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Outcome: The judgment of the Court of Appeal is reversed, and the matter is remanded to that court for further action consistent with this opinion.

Plaintiff's Experts: Unknown

Defendant's Experts: Unknown

Comments: None