San Francisco
The California Supreme Court last week ruled that 3,995 gay marriages performed in San Francisco six months ago violated state law and were invalid. The justices also said that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom overstepped his authority by granting the licenses despite a law voters approved defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Richard Ackerman, a lawyer who fought to void the marriages, said the decisions showed the state was governed by rules, “not by the political whims of a rogue mayor.” Newsom’s supporters said the law clearly violated the constitutional rights of same-sex couples, and would one day be overturned. “The future lies in fairness,” one activist said.
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