“Same-sex marriage cannot be prohibited solely because California has always done so before.”

— San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer, writing today to explain his ruling, in which he declared that California’s current state ban on same-sex marriages violates citizens’ constitutional right to equal treatment. Kramer previously ruled in support of the same-sex couples when they, along with the city of San Francisco, sought legal recourse in March of 2004 after the Supreme Court annulled approximately 4,000 same-sex marriages that had taken place in San Francisco on the basis that the city had illegitimately allowed the marriages to take place despite the state’s ban on the practice.  

Mimi Hanaoka