1.    CAN SAME-SEX COUPLES MARRY IN CALIFORNIA? No longer.  Even though, on May 15, 2008, the California Supreme Court ruled that barring same-sex couples from marriage was unconstitutional, the voters on November 4, 2008 passed a “Constitutional Amendment” identifying marriage as only between members of the opposite sex. 2.    CAN THE PASSAGE OF PROPOSITION 8 BE APPEALED TO THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT? Yes, but it is unlikely it will happen, as a negative ruling in the United States Supreme Court would have a devastating effect on this issue... 

A California domestic partnership is a legal relationship available to same-sex couples, and to certain opposite-sex couples in which at least one party is at least 62 years of age. It affords the couple virtually all of the same substantive legal benefits and privileges, and imposes upon the couple all of the same legal obligations and duties, that California law affords to and imposes upon a married couple. Enacted in 1999, the domestic partnership registry was the first of its kind in the United States created by a legislature without court intervention....