Thursday, August 12

This Just In - The California Supreme Court has ruled in the San Francisco marriage cases of Lockyer v. San Francisco and Lewis v. Alfaro. The eighty-page majority opinion, which can be found here, held that

in the absence of a judicial determination that such statutory provisions are unconstitutional, local executive officials lacked authority to issue marriage licenses to, solemnize marriages of, or register certificates of marriage for same-sex couples, and marriages conducted between same-sex couples in violation of the applicable statutes are void and of no legal effect.

Attached are several separate concurring and/or dissenting opinions. While the court appears to have been unanimous (on a quick read) in finding no authority for San Francisco officials to issue same-sex licenses, some justices would have stopped short of declaring void those already issued, preferring to take up that question in a separate proceeding. Every judge emphasizes that the basic question of marriage discrimination ain't over yet.