ADF on the case: asks CA high court to give Californians a chance to vote on marriage

Posted on May 22, 2008

AP: California marriage opponents seek 5-month delay

A conservative legal group asked the California Supreme Court on Thursday to put off finalization of its decision legalizing same-sex marriage until voters got a chance to weigh in.

The Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund wants the ruling stayed until November, when voters will probably encounter a ballot measure that would amend the state constitution to ban gay marriage. That amendment would overturn the justices’ ruling.

In court papers submitted late Thursday, the group warned that the state would suffer “great public harm and mischief” if it began allowing same-sex marriages on June 16, when the court’s decision would ordinarily become final.

Defense Fund attorneys also said implementing the ruling in the meantime would be an unnecessary expense for the state and cause unneeded confusion for couples.

“Permitting this decision to take effect immediately — in light of the realistic possibility that the people of California might amend their constitution to reaffirm marriage as the union of one man and one woman — risks legal havoc and uncertainty of immeasurable magnitude,” the attorneys wrote in the petition.

Thank God for ADF. This was a gross usurpation of power by the CA Supreme Court. The Court should at least have the decency to give the people of CA the chance to have the final say on the definition of marriage in the state.

“The people of California have a constitutional right to vote on marriage, and we trust the high court will respect the democratic process,” said Defense Fund senior counsel Glen Lavy, who argued before the court for maintaining the state’s one-man, one-woman marriage laws.

Exactly.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post