SAN FRANCISCO — The national gay-marriage debate shifted to California on Tuesday as the state’s highest court heard more than 3 1/2 hours of arguments on the constitutionality of a voter-approved law banning same-sex marriage.
Gay-rights advocates sued to overturn the ban four years ago after the court halted a months-long same-sex wedding spree that saw thousands of couples marry at City Hall.
“I think I speak for everybody when I say that this has been a long time coming and a day that has been eagerly anticipated,” said City Attorney Dennis Herrera, who is representing San Francisco in a lawsuit supporting gay marriage.
The court heard arguments in six cases filed after the court stopped the same-sex marriages in 2004. More than 4,000 couples exchanged vows at the direction of Mayor Gavin Newsom months before gay marriage became legal in Massachusetts, although the high court ultimately voided the unions.
The seven justices asked whether California already protects the civil rights of gay and lesbian couples through domestic partnerships. They also wanted to know if a ruling 60 years ago legalizing interracial marriages in the state gave them a precedent for striking down the same-sex marriage ban.
In briefs submitted to the court, same-sex marriage supporters argued that California’s Constitution leaves no room for denying gays and lesbians the right to wed.
They say that while the state is one of a handful where gay couples are entitled to most of the same legal rights as married spouses, the institution of marriage is too important to allow for alternatives that are by definition inferior.
“We’re very hopeful that California history will stay true today and we’ll see the constitution vindicated for the thousands of families in California who depend on our equal place under law,” said Jennifer Pizer, a Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund lawyer who is representing gay couples.
But the state and same-sex marriage foes maintain that limiting marriage to members of the opposite sex is reasonable — not only to uphold tradition but because California voters approved a ballot initiative eight years ago bolstering the gay-marriage ban that was in place at the time. To overturn that law, they say, would abrogate Californians’ rights.
The California Supreme Court has 90 days in which to rule following the hearing.
