The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has just ruled that California’s ban on same-sex marriage, under the law Proposition 8, is unconstitutional. Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote in the court’s 2-1 decision that:

“Although the Constitution permits communities to enact most laws they believe to be desirable, it requires that there be at least a legitimate reason for the passage of a law that treats different people differently. There was no such reason that Proposition 8 could have been enacted. All that Proposition 8 accomplished was to take away from same sex-couples the right to be granted marriage licenses and thus legally to use the designation ‘marriage.’ Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gay men and lesbians in California.”

You can read the court’s full ruling here.

Separately, the court also refused to invalidate Judge Vaughn Walker’s initial ruling that Proposition 8 was wrong on the grounds that he should have disclosed he was in a same-sex relationship.

I’ll post links to analysis as I find them.