San Francisco Superior Court Judge James Warren said he could not rule on a motion brought by the Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund because of a punctuation error.The group wants the judge to stop the city from issuing more marriage licenses to same-sex couples and invalidate the gay marriages that have taken place.
The judge said the group appears to be entitled to a stay, eventually. But he would not halt the marriages until the group writes its proposed court order correctly. It all came down to a semicolon.
"The way you've written this, it has a semicolon where it should have the word 'or,'" Warren said. "I don't have the authority to issue it under these circumstances."