# California Proposition 8 (2008) A California state constitutional amendment passed by voters on **November 4, 2008** with **52.2% support** that defined marriage in the state constitution as exclusively between one man and one woman — effectively **overturning the May 2008 California Supreme Court decision** (*In re Marriage Cases*) that had legalized same-sex marriage in California. Prop 8 was the **most-funded anti-LGBTQ ballot-measure campaign in U.S. history** at the time and the proximate cause of the federal litigation that became *[[Hollingsworth v. Perry]]* (2013). ## Timing and the In-Between Marriages The vote's calendar created an unusual legal-cultural artifact: - **May 15, 2008**: California Supreme Court legalizes same-sex marriage in *In re Marriage Cases* - **June 16, 2008**: First same-sex marriage licenses issued — beginning with [[Del Martin]] and [[Phyllis Lyon]] in San Francisco - **June 16 – November 4, 2008**: Approximately **18,000 same-sex couples marry in California** in the legal window - **November 4, 2008**: Prop 8 passes 52% to 48% — the same election day that produced [[Barack Obama]]'s national victory - **November 5, 2008**: California Attorney General Jerry Brown announces the existing 18,000 marriages will remain valid (a position later confirmed by the California Supreme Court in *Strauss v. Horton*) The fact that **Obama won California by 24 points on the same ballot** that passed Prop 8 by 4 points became a defining political-analytical problem for the contemporary American left — particularly because **Black and Latino voters** (who Obama brought to the polls in unprecedented numbers) were initial post-election scapegoats blamed for the result. Subsequent precinct-level analysis showed the result was driven primarily by **older voters across racial groups** and by **highly-motivated evangelical and Mormon turnout**, not by net racial-demographic margins. The Mormon Church (LDS) in particular funded approximately half of the pro-Prop 8 campaign — a fact that produced sustained subsequent LGBTQ-political organizing against the LDS Church through the early 2010s. ## Campaign Financing The combined campaign spending on both sides exceeded **$83 million** — the most ever spent on any U.S. ballot measure of any kind at the time. Approximately $40M was spent by Yes-on-8 (with the LDS Church mobilizing the largest share) and $43M by No-on-8. The fundraising-and-spending scale established the new baseline for what major American ballot-measure organizing would require going forward. ## The Federal Litigation Aftermath In May 2009, attorneys **Theodore Olson and David Boies** — the unlikely bipartisan pairing of the lead opposing attorneys in *[[Bush v. Gore]]* (2000) — filed *Perry v. Schwarzenegger* in U.S. District Court, arguing Prop 8 violated the federal Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses. The litigation eventually produced ***[[Hollingsworth v. Perry]]*** (June 26, 2013), in which the Supreme Court ruled the Prop 8 proponents lacked standing to defend the amendment in federal court — effectively restoring same-sex marriage in California two years before *[[Obergefell v. Hodges]]* nationalized marriage equality. ## Place in the Vault Prop 8 is the **most-cited single American ballot-measure setback** in the history of the marriage-equality movement and one of the canonical examples of how a temporary electoral setback can produce the federal-constitutional litigation that ultimately reverses the underlying restriction at much-larger scale. It is also the canonical case study in **Mormon Church organizational involvement in American anti-LGBTQ political mobilization** — a role the LDS Church has substantially walked back since approximately 2015 but that defined the late-2000s peak of the anti-marriage-equality coalition. --- ## See Also - [[Queer Liberation Ecosystem]] - [[Queer Liberation Timeline]] - [[Hollingsworth v. Perry]] - [[Obergefell v. Hodges]] - [[Colorado Amendment 2]]