(CN) - As expected, the Alliance Defense Fund filed an appeal to the 9th Circuit the day after a federal judge invalidated Proposition 8, California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage.
U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that Prop. 8 was unconstitutional in response to a lawsuit filed by two gay couples who claimed it violated the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the 14th Amendment.
"Each challenge is independently meritorious, as Proposition 8 both unconstitutionally burdens the exercise of the fundamental right to marry and creates an irrational classification on the basis of sexual orientation," Walker ruled.
"Plaintiffs do not seek recognition of a new right. To characterize plaintiffs' objective as the 'right to seek same-sex marriage' would suggest that plaintiffs seek something different from what opposite-sex couples across the state enjoy - namely, marriage," Walker wrote. "Rather, plaintiffs ask California to recognize their relationships for what they are: marriages."
Prop. 8 outlawed gay marriages in California only five months after the state Supreme Court made them legal.
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