Posted on 08/11/2004 1:24:10 PM PDT by Patriot11
The California Supreme Court will rule Thursday on whether San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom had the right to issue marriage licenses to more than 4,000 same-sex couples earlier this year.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
By Thomas Peele and Randy Myers
Contra Costa Times
The California Supreme Court will rule Thursday on whether San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom had the right to issue marriage licenses to more than 4,000 same-sex couples earlier this year.
The ruling is not expected to decide the constitutionality of gay marriage in the Golden State, which is being reviewed in lower courts, but only whether Newsom had the right to ignore the voter-approved Proposition 22. If the high court rules against the city, the state attorney general and three city residents are asking the justices to invalidate the marriages.
The decision will be posted at 10 a.m. on the court's Web site, www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions, according to a court representative.
``This isn't so much whether the marriage licenses are valid,'' but about whether ``the mayor had the power to order the clerks to perform the ceremonies,'' said Pam Karlan, a Stanford University law professor, on Tuesday.
The high court heard oral arguments May 25 in two cases that raised the issue.
Newsom has repeatedly said the ban on gay marriage violates the California and U.S. constitutions and that he had a duty to defy it. But justices expressed skepticism when they heard arguments.
``It is the city that created this mess,'' Justice Marvin Baxter said then.
San Francisco issued 4,161 marriage licenses to gay couples before the state Supreme Court ordered it to stop March 11. Chief Justice Ronald George said in May that those couples are in ``legal limbo'' while the court decides whether Newsom had any authority.
Karlan said the court might nullify the marriages or rule that Newsom was right and declare the marriages valid. A third, more unlikely scenario would be for the court to rule that Newsom lacked authority, but that the married couples should not be penalized because of his actions.
If the court rules the marriages invalid it will create ``all sorts of havoc,'' Karlan said. ``Many people in the last several months may have done things on reliance that they have this sort of license.''
Woopsie!
If the California Supreme Court strikes down California's DOMA, voters' only option is a constitutional amendment to preserve traditional marriage. One wonders why the late William Knight of Palmdale and the sponsors of Prop. 22 didn't take the more difficult route. It would have spared us Gavin Newsom's flouting this state's law.
I can't imagine a CA court doing anything else.
IIRC, the appeal to the US Supreme Court is next.
Let's see how the Leftists like that.
Would such an amendment have a shot in that bastion of liberalism?
In statewide votes, California leans rather conservative. The problem is that the conservatism is spread thinly across the state, while the liberals congregate in large cities, thus skewing the legislative representation.
California law says that he, nor anyone else, DOES NOT have the authority to perform gay "marriages". It should have stopped there.
I'm not surprised that the justices expressed skepticism when they heard arguments because the ban on gay marriage does not violate the California and U.S. constitutions.
IF? Give me a break. This "public servant" thought he was above the law and should pay for his actions dearly.
If you do, then you have my vote and a small campaign contribution.
Stupid is as stupid does.
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