California Legalization of Gay Marriage Has Wide Impact

California court seems to lend gays support for other antidiscrimination claims

SAN FRANCISCO—After a four-year hiatus, same-sex marriage, the hot-button cultural issue that served as a major partisan divide in the last presidential election, is back. Yesterday, the California Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a voter initiative banning same-sex marriage in the state. Its 4-to-3 decision paves the way for California to join Massachusetts as the only states where gay and lesbian couples can legally marry. "It is a precedent-setting case," says Douglas Kmiec, a law professor at Pepperdine University. "It's a major victory for proponents of same-sex marriage in the most populous state in the union."

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