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Calif. Supreme Court to issue ‘gay marriage’ ruling Thursday


SAN FRANCISCO (BP)–The California Supreme Court will issue its ruling Thursday on the validity of some 4,000 marriage licenses San Francisco issued to same-sex couples.

The ruling is not expected to address the issue of the legality of same-sex “marriage” statewide. Rather, the ruling is expected to determine whether San Francisco officials — most notably Mayor Gavin Newsom — had the authority to issue marriage licenses to homosexual couples earlier this year. The court subsequently stopped the city’s actions and heard oral arguments in May.

The court issued a statement Tuesday saying that a ruling was forthcoming.

California has a law explicitly banning same-sex “marriage.”

“The question in this case is whether elected public officials have to uphold and enforce the law as written or whether they can apply the law according to their own personal whims,” Benjamin Bull, chief counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, said in a statement. ADF is involved in the case.

“If it’s the latter, our uniform system of laws would be reduced to a patchwork of disparate rights and obligations based upon the beliefs of local officials.”

The lawsuit involves two cases: Lockyer v. City & County of San Francisco and Lewis v. Alfaro.

During oral arguments the justices directed their toughest comments at the San Francisco attorney.

“[I]t’s the city that created this mess,” Justice Marvin Baxter said then. “And I still haven’t heard an adequate explanation as to why the city did not get a judicial determination of the correctness of its position before putting all these people in the precarious position they are now in.”
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For more information about the national debate over same-sex “marriage,” visit www.bpnews.net/samesexmarriage.

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