In a 6-1 decision, the California Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the voter initiative that amended the California Constitution to ban homosexual marriage in the state of California. Chief Justice George, authored the opinion. It was also Chief Justice George who had authored the opinion last summer which had found statutory restrictions on homosexual marriage to violate the State Constitution.

The Court did, however, uphold the legality of approximately 18,000 gay marriages performed in the state between June of 2008 and the passage of Proposition 8.