Showdown looms as same-sex marriage heads to California justices
Associated Press
October 7, 2006

The California Supreme Court has a mixed record on gay rights and a tendency to give deference to existing law, which makes it an open question how the justices will rule now that the same-sex marriage issue is heading its way.
 
Reversing a San Francisco trial judge, a divided appeals court on Thursday upheld the state's existing marriage laws, saying they did not discriminate against gays and lesbians because they get all the rights of marriage the state confers by registering as domestic partners.
 
Lawyers for 20 same-sex couples and the city of San Francisco are appealing, putting the case on course to get to the Supreme Court three years after Mayor Gavin Newsom put the marriage debate in the national spotlight by allowing same-sex couples to get married at City Hall.
 
In 2004, the Supreme Court halted the wedding spree and voided the 4,037 marriage licenses while sidestepping the core constitutional question, ruling the mayor did not have authority to make marriage law.
 
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"It's sort of a dangerous game of guessing what justice will do what," said Lawrence Levine, who teaches sexual-orientation law at McGeorge School of Law. "The only thing we have to go on is the opinion where the Supreme Court said Mayor Newsom overstepped his authority."
 
Eugene Volokh, a UCLA law professor, suggested the high court will follow the appeals court, which ruled Thursday it was not the judiciary's role to decide who should marry.
 
"I do think it's a pretty good bet the California Supreme Court will say, indeed, it's the choice the people made," he said.
 
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