Strauss v. Horton: The California Case That Preserved Existing Same-Sex Marriages

For LGBTQ Californians, Strauss v. Horton was a landmark case with a sharply divided outcome: the state’s highest court upheld Proposition 8, but ruled that same-sex marriages performed before the measure took effect would remain valid.

The case followed California voters’ adoption of Proposition 8 on Nov. 4, 2008. The ballot measure amended the state Constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage. Several same-sex couples and governmental entities brought lawsuits in state trial courts, arguing that the amendment could not lawfully remove marriage rights that had been recognized under California law.

The California Supreme Court agreed to review appeals in three of those cases and consolidated them into a single proceeding. The court heard oral arguments in San Francisco on March 5, 2009. Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar noted that the litigation presented an issue without a previous California precedent: whether a ballot initiative could be used to take away a fundamental right.

That question made Strauss v. Horton especially significant for LGBTQ people pursuing equality through the courts. The plaintiffs did not persuade the justices to invalidate Proposition 8. In its decision, announced May 26, 2009, the court held that the measure was valid as adopted by voters.

The ruling nevertheless preserved an important protection. Couples who had married before Proposition 8 went into effect would continue to be legally married. For those couples, the lawsuit secured recognition of their existing relationships even as the constitutional amendment barred new same-sex marriages under its terms.

That distinction gave the decision lasting importance in the history of LGBTQ rights litigation in California. Strauss v. Horton did not deliver the broad result sought by the challengers, but it prevented the newly adopted amendment from dissolving marriages that had already taken place. It also placed the court’s interpretation of Proposition 8 into the state’s legal record.

The case was later overtaken by developments in federal litigation. On June 26, 2013, Strauss v. Horton was rendered moot by Hollingsworth v. Perry.

For San Francisco, the case has a direct local connection beyond its importance to California’s LGBTQ communities: the state Supreme Court heard the consolidated arguments in the city. That proceeding brought a question about the reach of voter power—and the security of same-sex couples’ legal marriages—before the state’s highest court.

Strauss v. Horton illustrates that a lawsuit can produce a meaningful legal protection even when it does not achieve its central constitutional objective. The plaintiffs lost their challenge to Proposition 8, but couples married before the measure took effect won continued recognition of those marriages.

Source and reuse information This backgrounder adapts factual material from “Strauss v. Horton” on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strauss_v._Horton The adapted text is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC BY-SA 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. This story has not been independently reviewed or fact-checked.

Further links listed by the Wikipedia page (not independently checked): - https://www.courtlistener.com/c/Cal.4th/46/364/ - https://web.archive.org/web/20081013044442/http://www.ucop.edu/cprc/documents/caconst.pdf - https://web.archive.org/web/20090227074054/http://cbs5.com/politics/gay.marriage.lawsuit.2.891816.html - https://web.archive.org/web/20081117042820/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/11/10/state/n171337S51.DTL - https://web.archive.org/web/20080212042257/http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_j.htm#failed - https://web.archive.org/web/20090528012654/http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/presscenter/newsreleases/MA21-09.PDF Image rights Photograph description: Pro and anti-Proposition 8 protesters rally in front of the San Francisco City Hall as the California Supreme Court holds a session in the to determine the definition of marriage ( Strauss v. Horton cases). Creator: Jamison Wieser. License: CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0). Original image page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACACourt_protest.jpg. The image was resized for display; no other changes were made.