SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The California Supreme Court on Thursday voided the nearly 4,000 same-sex marriages sanctioned in San Francisco this year and ruled unanimously that the mayor overstepped his authority by issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples.
The court said the city violated the law when it issued the certificates, since both legislation and a voter-approved measure defined marriage as a union between a man and woman.
The justices separately decided with a 5-2 vote to nullify the marriages peformed between Feb. 12 and March 11, when the court halted the weddings. Their legality, Justice Joyce Kennard wrote, must wait until courts resolve the constitutionality of state laws that restrict marriages to opposite-sex couples.
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http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040812/D84DQHH00.htmlI don't get that last line? States are supposed to respect each other's laws... but I thought that meant a decision to ALLOW marriage could bind the other 49 states. Are they saying a decision (if found constitutional) to DISallow marriage will ALSO be binding? What is this, "first one in the pool wins"??
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