As expected, the California Supreme Court upheld the propriety of Proposition 8’s amendment to the state constitution in an opinion released today, but left same-sex marriages performed since May 2008 in force. Here’s from the LA Times story:

The California Supreme Court today upheld Proposition 8’s ban on same-sex marriage but also ruled that gay couples who wed before the election will continue to be married under state law.

The decision virtually ensures another fight at the ballot box over marriage rights for gays. Gay rights activists say they may ask voters to repeal the marriage ban as early as next year, and opponents have pledged to fight any such effort. Proposition 8 passed with 52% of the vote.

In its coverage, the New York Times manages to screw things up in the first sentence — no wonder it is going out of business.

The California Supreme Court upheld a ban on same-sex marriage today, ratifying a decision made by voters last year that runs counter to a growing trend of states allowing the practice.

What is the trend in the various states? It is that the voters have in almost every instance rejected gay marriage statutes when given the opportunity to vote on them, but that some state high courts have judicially decreed that same-sex couples must be granted the ability to contract formal marriage within a given state. On both counts, California is following the national trend. The only difference is that in California, after the high court reversed an earlier rejection of same-sex marriage by the electorate, that same electorate was able to trump the court by directly amending the state constitution. For California to go “counter to a growing trend of states,” the voters would need to reverse course and approve gay marriage at the polls. That may happen, but it hasn’t yet.

Other posts on this topic.

• Prop 8 Survives As Do Preexisting Marriages at A Soft Answer.
• A Progressive Mormon Response to the Prop 8 Decision at The Exponent.
• Official LDS statement in response to the court’s decision posted at the LDS Newsroom.