July 3, 2005
Calif. AG Urges Court on Gay Marriage
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 5:28 a.m. ET

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- California's attorney general on Friday urged the state Supreme Court to decide whether gay marriage is permitted under the state constitution.

Attorney General Bill Lockyer asked the justices to review a trial judge's decision in March that said state laws limiting marriage to heterosexual couples is unconstitutional; the ruling had been stayed pending appeal.

The attorney general, however, wants California's top court to remove the pending case from a San Francisco appellate court.

''Same-sex couples should be given a prompt determination as to whether they can marry, and should not have to put their lives and affairs on hold indefinitely while this matter works its way through several levels of court proceedings,'' Lockyer said.

The move came two days after gays and lesbians won a major legal victory before the state Supreme Court, which let stand a new law granting registered domestic partners many of the same rights and protections of heterosexual marriage.

But it's unclear whether the justices will decide the gay marriage question since they normally do not resolve cases until they have worked their way through the trial and appellate courts. One of the last times they did involved gay marriage.

In August, the seven justices ruled unanimously that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom overstepped his authority by issuing same-sex marriage licenses last spring. On a 5-2 vote, the court also voided the 4,000 marriages of gay and lesbian couples sanctioned by the city.

The court didn't resolve whether the California Constitution would permit a same-sex marriage. In nullifying the marriages, Justice Joyce Kennard wrote the court was not interested in deciding the hot-button issue of same-sex marriage until ''the constitutionality of California laws restricting marriages to opposite-sex couples has been authoritatively resolved through judicial proceedings.''

The court can make its decision any time.