Divorce Attorneys
The Battle Over Same-Sex Marriage
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The state Supreme Court should leave intact the marriages of 4,000 same-sex couples even if it rules that Mayor Gavin Newsom exceeded his authority by approving their marriage licenses, the city of San Francisco has told the court. In response to a question posed by the justices last week, city lawyers said Wednesday that declaring the City Hall weddings invalid would be premature while the state’s marriage law was under legal attack; would be unfair to the couples, who aren’t parties to the case; and would be “a green light for discrimination.'’ But Attorney General Bill Lockyer’s office and an organization opposing same-sex marriage said the court should not recognize marriages performed in violation of state law. “The same-sex certificates and licenses issued by (the city) are invalid because only marriage between a man and a woman is valid and recognized in California,'’ the state’s lawyers told the court. They said the city should be ordered to refund the $82 license fees. The Alliance Defense Fund, representing opponents of same-sex marriage, opposed a refund and said the couples were on notice that the licenses were legally dubious. Attorney Robert Tyler cited the warning added by the city to each license application that “marriage of lesbian and gay couples may not be recognized as valid by any jurisdiction other than San Francisco.” The latest round of written arguments came as the court prepared for a hearing in either late May or early June on the legality of Newsom’s unprecedented order, which made San Francisco a magnet for gay and lesbian couples from around the nation. After a month, the court halted the weddings March 11 and said it would decide whether the mayor and the city had violated a state constitutional provision requiring agencies to follow California laws until a state appellate court declares a law unconstitutional. The city argues that the restriction applies only to state agencies and not to local governments or their elected leaders. City Attorney Dennis Herrera and six couples have filed separate Superior Court lawsuits challenging California’s ban on same-sex marriage. The court’s query last week about the validity of the weddings already performed raised the issue of a private citizen’s right to rely on the government’s actions, even if they prove to be unauthorized. In a case similar to San Francisco’s, an Oregon judge halted same-sex marriages in Multnomah County on Tuesday but ordered the state to validate the county’s marriages of 3,000 gay and lesbian couples. |
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