This section contains the nature of the case and procedural background.

In November 2000, the voters of California adopted Proposition 22 Entitled the California Defense of Marriage Act. Proposition 22 amended the state's Family Code by adding the following language: 'Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.' Cal. Family Code § 308.5. This amendment further codified the existing definition of marriage as 'a relationship between a man and a woman.' In February 2004, the mayor of San Francisco instructed county officials to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The following month, the California Supreme Court ordered San Francisco to stop issuing such licenses and later nullified the marriage licenses that same-sex couples had received. Parties filed state court actions challenging or defending California's exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage under the state constitution. These actions were consolidated in San Francisco superior court; the presiding judge determined that, as a matter of law, California's bar against marriage by same-sex couples violated the equal protection guarantee of Article I Section 7 of the California Constitution. In May 2008, the California Supreme Court invalidated Proposition 22 and held that all California counties were required to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Prop 8 was then passed by the voters. Ps challenge the constitutionality of Proposition 8 under the Fourteenth Amendment.

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