Appeals court strikes down California's same sex marriage ban

A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday afternoon that a Proposition 8, California voter ban on same sex marriage, is unconstitutional.

A three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled 2-1 Tuesday that a lower court was right to strike the law down.

An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was expected.

####

Update: In a 133-page ruling, Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote that "Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California. And to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples."

"We consider whether that amendment violates the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. We conclude that it does. We do not doubt the importance of the more general questions presented to us concerning the rights of same-sex couples to marry nor do we doubt that these questions will likely be resolved in other states, and for the nation as a whole, by other courts."

The entire ruling can be read here.