Prop 8 Should Take Effect Amid Suits: Calif. AG

As gay-rights campaigners petition the California Supreme Court to overturn Proposition 8, the state’s attorney general is urging the court to let the measure banning same-sex marriage take effect. Jerry Brown asked the court to rule on the lawsuits to give the question “certainty and finality”—and wants to avoid marriages that could end up in legal limbo in the interim, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Brown added that the state does not question the validity of same-sex marriages that took place before Nov. 5, the day after voters amended California’s constitution to outlaw them. Six lawsuits are now pending before the top court, contending that Proposition 8 illegally revises the state’s constitution by watering down fundamental principles of equality. (More Proposition 8 stories.)