Issue Position: Fighting for Equality

Issue Position

Attorney General Kamala D. Harris fought to restore the fundamental right to marry for same-sex couples in California, and continues to fight for equal rights for all.

After the United States Supreme Court's historic opinion in Hollingsworth v. Perry, Attorney General Harris directed county clerks and recorders in all 58 counties to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Soon after, the Attorney General performed the first post-ruling same-sex marriage in California, of plaintiffs Kris Perry and Sandy Stier, at San Francisco City Hall.

The Supreme Court's historic opinion echoed legal arguments Attorney General Harris made in a brief submitted to the Court in February 2013. The Court found that proponents of Proposition 8 lacked the legal standing necessary to challenge the rights of gays and lesbians to marry and let stand a District Court ruling that found Proposition 8 unconstitutional.

Attorney General Harris continued to defend marriage equality in a brief to the California Supreme Court when opponents of marriage equality argued that the lower court's ruling did not permit all counties in California to marry same-sex couples. The California Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality.

Before the Supreme Court found portions of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional, Attorney General Harris was joined by 14 other Attorneys General in a brief that urged the Court to overturn DOMA. The Court's decision was hailed by Attorney General Harris as a "historic step forward in the fight for civil rights for same-sex couples."

In October 2013, Attorney General Harris was joined by a coalition of 14 states in a brief before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Sevcik v. Sandoval, arguing that Nevada's laws prohibiting marriage for same-sex couples are unconstitutional. The case is still pending.

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