SF gay marriages: nullify the 3,995 marriages
 

They wake up today single again...

Calif. court voids same-sex marriages performed in S.F.

By DAVID KRAVETS, Associated Press

Posted: Thursday August 12th, 2004, 10:57 AM
Last Updated: Thursday August 12th, 2004, 11:19 AM

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The California Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that San Francisco's mayor overstepped his authority by issuing same-sex marriage licenses this spring. The court also voided all the marriages of gay and lesbian couples sanctioned by the city.
The court said the city violated the law when it issued the certificates and performed the marriage ceremonies in a monthlong wedding march that began Feb. 12, since both legislation and a voter-approved measure defined marriage as a union between a man and woman.

The court, however, did not resolve whether the California Constitution would permit a same-sex marriage, ruling instead on the narrow issue of whether local officials could bypass California's judicial and legislative branches.

Chief Justice Ronald George noted that Thursday's ruling doesn't address "the substantive legal rights of same sex couples. In actuality, the legal issue before us implicates the interest of all individuals in ensuring that public officials execute their official duties in a manner that respects the limits of the authorities granted to them as officeholders."

The justices also decided with a 5-2 vote to nullify the 3,995 marriages peformed before the court halted the weddings on March 11. Their legality, Justice Joyce Kennard wrote, must wait until "the constitutionality of California laws restricting marriages to opposite-sex couples has been authoritatively resolved through judicial proceedings now pending in the courts of California."

About a dozen gay and lesbian couples, some wearing wedding dresses and tuxedos, waited for the decision on the steps of the Supreme Court building. Some began to cry when Molly McKay of Marriage Equality California read that their marriages would be voided.

"We're going to continue to honor our relationship and honor our marriage in a way that a lot of heterosexuals don't and in a way that a lot of heterosexuals do," vowed McKay. "We're going to make this one of the most romantic civil rights struggles on earth."

The same-sex marriages had virtually no legal value, but powerful symbolic value. Their nullification by the high court dismayed Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, the first same-sex couple to receive a marriage license in San Francisco.

"Del is 83-years-old and I am 79," Lyon said. "After being together for more than 50 years, it is a terrible blow to have the rights and protections of marriage taken away from us. At our age, we do not have the luxury of time."

The justices agreed to resolve the legality of the weddings sanctioned by Mayor Gavin Newsom after emergency petitions were filed by conservative interest groups and the state's top law enforcement official, Attorney General Bill Lockyer.

....

http://www.bakersfield.com/24hour/na...-9145388c.html



:ak47:

i guess im single again

if so, without the headaches ... and lawyers ! :1orglaugh