of california supreme court overturns gay marriage ban, ellen degeneres will tie knot with girlfriend

California Supreme Court overturns gay marriage ban: In a 4-3 decision, the justices rule that people have a fundamental 'right to marry' the person of their choice and that gender restrictions violate the state Constitution's equal protection guarantee.

The California Supreme Court struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage Thursday in a broadly worded decision that would invalidate virtually any law that discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation.

The 4-3 ruling declared that the state Constitution protects a fundamental "right to marry" that extends equally to same-sex couples. It tossed a highly emotional issue into the election year while opening the way for tens of thousands of gay people to wed in California, starting as early as mid-June.

Read the court statement

In Lockyer v. City and County of San Francisco (2004) 33 Cal.4th 1055 (Lockyer), this court concluded that public officials of the City and County of San Francisco acted unlawfully by issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in the absence of a judicial determination that the California statutes limiting marriage to a union between a man and a woman are unconstitutional...

Other links:
- California Court Affirms Right to Gay Marriage
- California Supreme Court overturns gay marriage ban
- California's marriage ruling -- what it means and what it doesn't mean
- Gay marriage opponents vow to fight Calif. ruling


With the ban lifted, TMZ reports that Ellen DeGeneres has announced during the Ellen DeGeneres Show that she will tie the knot with longtime girlfriend, actress Portia de Rossi. (Yep, I'm Getting Married)

A spy in the audience of this afternoon's taping of the "Ellen DeGeneres Show" tells us that after Ellen mentioned today's California Supreme Court ruling striking down the state's ban on gay marriage, she surprised everyone and announced that she was going to tie the knot with longtime girlfriend, actress Portia de Rossi.

Portia was in the crowd and after she made the announcement, the studio audience went wild, giving the two a huge standing O.