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reliable best ecommerce web host reviews free of charge 08/12/2004: "Some lines won't be crossed"

Hot off the press: a measure of sanity prevails at the California Supreme Court:

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.

This by no means ends the debate over gay marriage, in California or anywhere else, but it does indicate that there are lines that even the most liberal courts won't cross in imposing a new marriage regime.