Koebke

Plaintiffs, a lesbian couple who are registered domestic partners, sued defendant country club, to which one of them belongs, alleging that the club’s refusal to extend to them certain benefits it extends to married members of the club constitutes marital status discrimination under Civil Code section 51, familiarly known as the Unruh Civil Rights Act (the Act). The club obtained summary judgment on plaintiffs’ marital status discrimination claim and the Court of Appeal affirmed. We granted review to determine whether the Act prohibits discrimination based on marital status. We conclude that marital status claims are cognizable under the Unruh Civil Rights Act, but, for purposes of such claims, a distinction exists between registered domestic partners (see Fam. Code, § 297 et seq.) and other unmarried couples and individuals. Domestic partners registered under the California Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act of 2003 (the Domestic Partner Act), the current version of the domestic partnership law, are the equivalent of spouses for the purposes of the Act and a business that extends benefits to spouses it denies to registered domestic partners engages in…

I concur in the majority’s conclusion that because the Unruh Civil Rights Act (Civ. Code, §51) prohibits discrimination against registered domestic partners on the basis of their marital status and plaintiffs are registered domestic partners under the Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act of 2003 (Stats. 2003, ch. 421, § 2), defendant Bernardo Heights Country Club (BHCC) is not entitled to summary judgment on plaintiffs’ claim for injunctive relief against marital status discrimination. (Maj. opn., ante, pt. II.B.) I respectfully disagree, however, with the majority’s conclusion that “legitimate business interests facially justified BHCC’s spousal benefit policy” (maj. opn., ante, at p. 851) before January 1, 2005, the effective date of the current act. As the majority concedes (id. at p.852, fn. 10), plaintiffs have presented evidence that they were registered as domestic partners under the partnership statutes in effect between January 1, 2000, and January 1, 2005. The business interests the majority cites as justifying the earlier discrimination are the same interests BHCC posits and the majority rejects as justifying BHCC’s current discrimination. In my view, those…

Christine Sun, Alan Schlosser, San Francisco, Peter Eliasberg, Los Angeles, Jordan C. Budd; James D. Esseks, Romana Mancini; Miranda D. Junowicz, Steven C. Sheinberg, Los Angeles, Michelle Deutchman; Geoff Kors; Maxie Rheinheimer Stephens & Vrevich and Darin L. Wessel, Los Angeles, for American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial Counties, American Civil Liberties Union Foundation Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, the Anti-Defamation League, Equality California and Tom Homann Law Association as Amici Curiae on behalf of Plaintiffs and Appellants.

Nancy Hogshead-Makar; Nancy M. Solomon; Shannon Minter and Courtney Joslin, San Francisco, for Women's Sports Foundation, California Women's Law Center and National Center for Lesbian Rights as Amici Curiae on behalf of Plaintiffs and Appellants.

Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Manuel M. Medeiros, State Solicitor General, Tom Greene, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Louis Verdugo, Jr., Assistant Attorney General, and Antonette Benita Cordero, Deputy Attorney General as Amici Curie on behalf of Plaintiffs and…