CA: Thanks to a semicolon, gays and lesbians keep marrying in San Francisco

AP via San Francisco Chronicle ^ | Feb. 17, 2004 | DAVID KRAVETS and LISA LEFF

[calcowgirl]

SAN FRANCISCO - Two judges delayed taking any action Tuesday to shut down San Francisco's same-sex wedding spree, citing court procedures as they temporarily rebuffed conservative groups enraged that the city's liberal politicians had already married almost 2,400 gay and lesbian couples.

[calcowgirl]

A semicolon... unbelievable.

[dinok]

Homosexuals and colons go together.

[NavyCaptain]

Thank God they didn't have a mis-spelling!

[BlessedByLiberty]

A semicolon is much more important than Gavin Newsom breaking the law.

[TheEaglehasLanded]

It's not a semicolon issue, that's just an excuse. If the semicolon is corrected it will be your using the wrong adjective next.

[Argus]

A lot of guys in Frisco are lucky if they have any fraction of a colon.

[Go Gordon]

A semicolon... unbelievable.

Was the judge referring to a semicolon or a seman colon?

[TheEaglehasLanded]

Gavin Newsome is a semicolon and he is definitely in the wrong place.

[Petronski]

It's hard for me believe the petition did not request "or such other relief as this Court may grant."

This would, I believe, permit the Judge to grant whatever lawful relief he saw fit, whether it was requested or not.

[CobaltBlue]

All he had to do was strike out the semi-colon with his pen, interlineate the word "or", hand it to the attorneys to initial, and enter the order.

At least, that's all he'd have to do in Virginia.

If hand written interlineations are a violation of California law, if I had been one of the lawyers, I would have called my secretary on a cell phone and instructed her to retype that one page and fax it to judge's chambers ASAP. Total turn-around time, 15 minutes, max. A secretary on her toes could do it in 5 minutes.

[NonValueAdded]

Isn't there something tragically ironic about the judge's statement?

[gitmo]

Is is?

[Felis_irritable]

It was probably a high colon-ick.

[stop_fascism]

Just like his grandaddy. The nut doesn't fall far from the tree.

[TheEaglehasLanded]

I have never heard of a judge not ruling on a petition before based on a semicolon. The plaintiffs should have told the judge we will make immediate change and refile. NOW RULE

[Dad was my hero]

"The way you've written this it has a semicolon where it should have the word 'or'," the judge told them. "I don't have the authority to issue it under these circumstances."

Isn't there something tragically ironic about the judge's statement?

You mean kinda like, I only have the authority to overrule written laws, the constitution and write my own laws as I see them, but I don't have REAL POWER the kind it takes to remove a semicolon and replace it with "or."

[GOPrincess]

Yes, I don't get this. I was a legal secretary in CA for 10 years and there were times attorneys would draft a handwritten stipulation in court and have it signed! If they were arguing about that semicolon all day, there's no reason on earth a new one couldn't have been printed and messengered to the courthouse, if the judge refused to strike it out himself (which I believe he could do...).

[heleny]

I heard on the radio (special report from ABC news during the Roger Hedgecock show) that the 2nd ruling from the Superior Court is to stop issuing [fake] marriage licenses.

This contradicts the AP report that there's no ruling, so who knows who is right.

[dc-zoo]

Those cornhole judges probably have a colon the size of a semi.