Prop. 8 delay: California court will decide if gay-marriage foes can appeal

The California Supreme Court will answer a sticky legal question: Can the opponents of gay marriage who backed Prop. 8 defend it in court? Oral arguments won't start before September.
By Elizabeth Fuller
February 16, 2011

The latest question in California’s ongoing legal battle over same-sex marriage is now in the hands of the California Supreme Court.
California’s highest court announced Wednesday it would decide if the original sponsors of Proposition 8 – which banned same-sex marriage in California in 2008, then was subsequently overturned in federal court – have the legal standing to defend the measure.

The issue arises because the state of California declined to appeal the ruling of Chief US District Judge Vaughn Walker that the initiative violated the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution. Prop. 8’s supporters then looked for someone else with the legal right to appeal. In the name of a deputy clerk from Imperial County and on behalf of their own organization, Protect Marriage eventually filed an appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. the rest