From defending Mayor Gavin Newsom’s issuance of same-sex marriage licenses in 2004 to serving as co-counsel to the David Boies-Ted Olson team that toppled Prop 8 in 2013, Dennis Herrera’s office was, as the New York Times reported, “involved in every phase of the legal war over same-sex marriage in California.”
SAN FRANCISCO (Nov. 4, 2011)— City Attorney Dennis Herrera praised today’s federal court decision requiring supporters of Proposition 8 to comply with state campaign finance laws. Backers of Proposition 8, the constitutional amendment that denied same-sex couples the right to marry, had sought to hide theidentities of their contributors, arguing that those contributors would be harassed if their names were disclosed.
City Attorney Dennis Herrera today hailed President Barack Obama’s decision to ask the Department of Justice to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act. According to Attorney General Eric Holder, “…the President has concluded that given a number of factors, including a documented history of discrimination, classifications based on sexual orientation should be subject to a more heightened standard of scrutiny. The President has also concluded that Section 3 of DOMA, as applied to legally married same-sex couples, fails to meet that standard and is therefore unconstitutional. Given that conclusion, the President has instructed the Department not to defend the statute in such cases.”
