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How 1997 ruling might thwart Prop. 8 appeal
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Contributor | Homegrown Democrat |
Last Edited | Homegrown Democrat Aug 18, 2010 02:54am |
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Category | General |
Author | Bob Egelko |
Media | Newspaper - San Francisco Chronicle |
News Date | Wednesday, August 18, 2010 08:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
Description | Hardly anyone noticed when the U.S. Supreme Court said in 1997 that it had "grave doubts" that the sponsors of a ballot measure - in that case, an English-only initiative for government agencies in Arizona - had the right to defend the law in federal court.
Now that case could determine the future of same-sex marriage in California.
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, which will hear arguments in December on a federal judge's ruling that overturned Proposition 8, has asked both sides to address the question of whether the campaign committee for the November 2008 initiative has legal standing - the right to represent the state's interests in upholding one of its laws.
If the answer is yes, the court will then decide whether Prop. 8, which defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman, violated gays' and lesbians' constitutional right to wed and discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation, as Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled Aug. 4.
But if the appeals court denies standing and the Supreme Court agrees, Prop. 8 will die without further review, and same-sex couples will be allowed to marry in California. |
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