LifeSiteNews: CA to Decide on Gay Marriage Ban

I thought I would pass this along from LifeSiteNews.

California Supreme Court Will Begin Hearings on Homosexual Marriage Law

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

SAN FRANCISCO, March 3, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The California Supreme Court will hear arguments tomorrow on the constitutionality of the state's homosexual marriage ban.

The California law that limits marriage to heterosexual couples is being challenged by 15 homosexual couples as well as the city of San Francisco and a homosexual-rights group, all of whom argue that the ban is unconstitutional discrimination.

Several California religious and conservative advocacy groups, including the California Catholic Conference, National Association of Evangelicals, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will file a friend-of-the-court brief in defense of Proposition 22, a law passed in 1999 that defined marriage as between a man and a woman.

"Male-female marriage is the life-blood of community, society, and the state. We rely on this honored institution for the procreation and proper formation of the next generation. Social science demonstrates, and [our] own long experience confirms, that a child fares best when raised by caring biological parents who have the deepest stake in his or her well-being and who can provide both male and female role models," wrote the brief's author, Kenneth Star.

Others arguing in defense of the state law that prohibits same-sex marriage will be the State Attorney General Jerry Brown, a lawyer representing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and groups such as Campaign for California Families and Liberty Counsel.

"The court is not going to rule on the public-policy issue of whether same-sex marriage is a good or bad thing for society," said Supervising Deputy Attorney General Christopher Krueger, one of several state lawyers who will be defending the state law, in a San Diego Union-Tribune report. "The court is only going to rule on whether the state is compelled by the constitution to legalize same-sex marriage."

The California Court's ruling will have repercussions across the US, as other states watch the outcome carefully in order to determine how to deal with challenges to their own marriage laws.

The hearing tomorrow may be watched online at http://www.calchannel.com or on the Court's web site at http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/courts/supreme/#cal from 9:00 a.m. - noon PST (noon - 3:00 p.m. EST).