Follow up: CALSCT upholds domestic partner law

While Nebraska Attorney General seeks to appeal the Federal District Court ruling striking down Nebraska's gay marriage constitutional amendment, the unanimous California Supreme Court has summarily upheld a lower appeals court opinion that the State's domestic partnership law (Family Code section 297.5) stands against opponents' contention that the measure conflicted with a voter-approved initiative defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. While the domestic partnership law does not say gays may "marry", the law gives gay couples many benefits married enjoy. Proposition 22(Family Code section 308.5) make marriage solely between a man and a woman. Ironic that the California appeals court uses the Nebraska constitutional amendment (Article 1 Sec 29) against both gay marriage and hybrid partnership arrangements to limit the California marriage voter initiative to only marriage, and to have no effect on hybrid relationships. "Supporters of Proposition 22 could have easily barred the Legislature from enacting or extending domestic partnership laws by using language similar to that in other states—in Nebraska, for example, an initiative defining marriage as between a man and a woman also stated that domestic partnerships or civil unions between same sex couples would not be valid," the appeals court noted. The Appeals Court does not raise the objections the Nebraska Federal District Court had to Nebraska's marriage amendment.

Justice Janice Rogers Brown, who leaves Thursday to join the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, did not vote.

The domestic partners case is Knight v. Superior Court, S133961, summarily affirmed in the Supreme Court.