California Supreme Court Overturns Gay Marriage Ban

JURIST reports that, on Thursday, the Supreme Court of California issued an opinion in In re Marriage Cases overturning a state ban on same-sex marriage. The 4-3 ruling held that the ban violated protections on the right to "form a family relationship" in the California Constitution. California becomes the second state after Massachusetts to recognize same-sex marriage. In 2003, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled in Goodridge v. Dept. of Public Health that the state "deny the protections, benefits and obligations conferred by civil marriage to two individuals of the same sex who wish to marry." In 2006, the NY Court of Appeals in Hernandez v. Robles decided that New York law does not permit same-sex marriage and that there is no constitutional right to same-sex marriage.The topic remains a hotly debated issue as religious and conservative groups oppose gay rights advocacy groups who seek to gain the benefits of marriage for same sex couples.

The BLS Library has extensive material in its collection on the topic including these monographs published since the US Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003).

Same-sex marriage and the Constitution / Evan Gerstmann
Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2008 2nd ed
KF539 .G47 2008 Main

America's struggle for same-sex marriage / Daniel R. Pinello
Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2006
HQ1034.U5 P55 2006 Main


Same-sex marriage : the cultural politics of love and law / Kathleen E. Hull
Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2006
HQ1033 .H85 2006 Main



Same-sex marriage : the legal and psychological evolution in America / Donald J. Cantor
Middletown, Conn. : Wesleyan University Press, c2006
HQ1034.U5 S245 2006 Main


The lesbian and gay movements : assimilation or liberation? / Craig A. Rimmerman
Boulder, Colo. : Westview Press, c2008
HQ76.8.U5 R58 2008 Main

Queers in court : gay rights law and public policy / Susan Gluck Mezey
Lanham, Md. : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, c2007
KF4754.5.Z9 M49 2007 Main

Courting equality : a documentary history of America's first legal same-sex marriages / text by Patricia A. Gozemba and Karen Kahn ; photographs by Marilyn Humphries
Boston : Beacon Press, c2007
HQ1034.U5 G69 2007 Main

Gay marriage : for better or for worse? : what we've learned from the evidence / William N. Eskridge, Jr., Darren R. Spedale
Oxford [England] ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2006
K699 .E85 2006 Int'l.


Gay marriage and democracy : equality for all / R. Claire Snyder
Lanham, Md. : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, c2006
HQ1034.U5 S58 2006 Main

The place of families : fostering capacity, equality, and responsibility / Linda C. McClain

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2006

HQ536 .M412 2006 Main

Cause lawyers and social movements / edited by Austin Sarat, Stuart A. Scheingold

Stanford, CA : Stanford Law and Politics, 2006

KF299.P8 C38 2006 Main

Same sex, different states : when same-sex marriages cross state lines / Andrew Koppelman

New Haven, Ct. : Yale University Press, c2006

KF539 .K67 2006 Main

Out of the closets & into the courts : legal opportunity structure and gay rights litigation / Ellen Ann Andersen

Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, c2005

KF4754.5 .A93 2005 Main

Courts, liberalism, and rights : gay law and politics in the United States and Canada / Jason Pierceson

Philadelphia, PA : Temple University Press, 2005

KF4754.5 .P54 2005 Main

The long arc of justice : lesbian and gay marriage, equality, and rights / Richard D. Mohr

New York : Columbia University Press, c2005

HQ76.3.U5 M643 2005 Main

The case for gay rights : from Bowers to Lawrence and beyond / David A.J. Richards

Lawrence, Kan. : University Press of Kansas, c2005

KF4754.5 .R525 2005 Main

The future of gay rights in America / edited by H.N. Hirsch

New York : Routledge, 2005

KF4754.5 .F88 2005 Main

Same sex relationships : from 'odious crime' to 'gay marriage' / Stephen Cretney

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2006

KD771 .C74 2006 Int'l.