Same-sex
marriages conducted before California's November vote on a
marriage ban would remain intact even if the ballot
initiative were passed, state attorney general Jerry
Brown said Monday, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Same-sex
marriages conducted before California's November vote on a
marriage ban would remain intact even if the ballot
initiative were passed, state attorney general Jerry
Brown said Monday, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The language on
Proposition 8 would amend the state constitution to ban
same-sex marriage, in an attempt to overrule the state
supreme court's May 15 decision that denying same-sex
couples the right to marry was unconstitutional. The
ballot initiative does not specify whether the
November election would affect marriages performed prior to
the November 4 election.
Proposition 8
supporters said in their ballot arguments that an
affirmative vote would nullify all marriages "regardless of
when or where performed," which could also be
interpreted for future same-sex marriages, according
to the San Francisco Chronicle. As attorney
general, Brown would represent the state in lawsuits
over the validity and meaning of the measure if it were to
pass.
"I believe that
marriages that have been entered into subsequent to
the supreme court opinion will be recognized by the
California supreme court," Brown said in the article.
"I would think the court, in looking at the underlying
equities, would most probably conclude that upholding
the marriages performed in that interval would be
a just result."
The ballot
wording of Proposition 8 has been the center of a number of
legal battles. An updated description of Proposition 8,
which Brown wrote, says the measure "eliminates the
right of same-sex couples to marry." The original
wording simply defined marriage as the union of a man
and a woman. Proponents of the measure argue that the new
language is biased and prefer that the proposition
be titled "Limit on Marriage," wording that was
used for signature-gathering campaigns to qualify the
measure for the November ballot. (The Advocate)
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