More than ten years ago, on July 3, 2003, HNN published "The Historians' Case Against Gay Discrimination," a fascinating brief prepared by prominent historians to support same-sex plaintiffs in the famous case Lawrence v. Texas (June 26, 2003), in which the United States Supreme Court struck down prohibitions against all private, adult consensual sex.

Many of the same arguments in that brief, presented by some of the same historians, were a powerful force in Judge Vaughn Walker's decision on August 4 of this year that California's Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.