Original Prop 8 challengers address Supreme Court

Nearly four years after filing their challenge to California's Proposition 8, attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies filed their case with the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday. According to Buzzfeed, the legal team argued that the Constitution "does not tolerate the permanent exclusion of gay men and lesbians from the most important relation in life," i.e., marriage.

Olson and Boies represent two California same sex couples who are unable to marry in the state. Their case argues broadly that to deny same sex couples the right to marry is unconstitutional and, more narrowly, that Proposition 8, which passed in November of 2008, is an unconstitutional encroachment on individual freedoms.

"The unmistakable purpose and effect of Proposition 8 is to stigmatize gay men and lesbians—and them alone—and enshrine in California's Constitution that they are 'unequal to everyone else,'" read the attorneys' complaint.

The court is expected to hear the case in late March and to reach a decision in June.

Read the suit, embedded below via Scribd:

Perry Respondents' Merits Brief by

Watch video of plaintiffs Kristen Perry and Sandra Stier reacting to news of Prop 8 being overturned in 2011, embedded below: