Gay marriage campaigners were celebrating a major victory on Tuesday after a federal appeals court ruled California's same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional. The long-awaited ruling could pave the way for a U.S. Supreme Court decision on the voter-approved measure known as Proposition 8.

In a 2-1 decision, a three-judge panel of the ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco agreed with a lower court judge who in 2010 declared the ban to be a violation of the civil rights of gay and lesbian people.

Prop 8 campaigners said the ruling added California to
the growing list of states that have ended barriers to
marriage for gay and lesbian couples.
Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

"Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples," wrote Stephen Reinhardt, one of the court's most liberal judges, in Tuesday's ruling.

"Although the constitution permits communities to enact most laws they believe to be desirable, it requires that there be at least a legitimate reason for the passage of a law that treats different classes of people differently," the ruling states.

"There was no such reason that Proposition 8 could have been enacted."

In its ruling, the appeals panel stressed that its decision applies only to California, which allowed gay marriage before Proposition 8, even although it has jurisdiction in nine western states.