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]

ping

[RightOnline]

If God doesn't utterly level San Francisco, He owes Sodom and Gomorrah HUGE apologies.

[heleny]

ABC's special report changed. Now they say that the marriages will continue until Friday, at least, when the 1st judge has another hearing.

The 2nd judge set a date for March 29th but didn't stop the marriages as initially reported.

[Always Right]

I hope this sets a precedent. Judges should base all decision on which lawyers present their brief with the best grammar and punctuation.

[Libloather]

But until they write their proposed court order correctly, Warren indicated that he would not order an immediate halt to the marriages of gays and lesbians that continued throughout the day across the street at City Hall.

Some sort of White-Out© shortage in Cally?

[Restorer]

Considering what is underneath SF, its total destruction is, geologically speaking, only a matter of time.

[heleny]

The 2nd judge said that SF should either shut down the marriages or show up March 29th to explain why not. Obviously, SF will choose the latter.

[calcowgirl]

March 29th?????

It takes a month and a half to change a semi-colon?

Again.... Unbelievable!

[Jack Black]

The judge, the black robed bastard, is clearly toying with the plantiffs and the outraged public. This is just more shoving it in our faces. Remember Orwell's vision of the future "a boot on a face, over and over, forever". Well it's pretty much come to that with the black-robed idiots. The citizens of the state should start impeaching them right now. This is disgusting and absurd and evil.

Maybe the Gov. should call out the national guard and surround City Hall.

[PackerBoy]

Amateurs. When I have a big case in court, I bring a laptop and portable printer just in case I need to whip out a quick document, subpoena, draft order or whatever. You have to be prepared for these possibilities.

[Bud Krieger]

Couldn`t the Judge(s) have issued a temporary order until the issue is looked at again at the later date ? After the petition wording/punctuation error is corrected?

By not doing so, it seems they just wanted to twist a screw into the sides of the plaintiffs.

No , there`s no agenda there , is there ? ( sarcasm )

[dinok]

what is tragic is that the law is being broken and no one does anything to stop it.

Earth to Arnold...your state is going to hell...(deeper)

[mikrofon]

"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 .... The judge said he'd read the voluminous briefs submitted to him, and had done his own research, reviewing all the relevant statutes."

Being able to parse the meaning of a single semicolon from "voluminous briefs" is something you might expect from an anal-retentive...

[CaptainK]

semi-colon = half-ass

[07055]

Newsom says the equal protection clause of the California Constitution makes denying marriage licenses to gay couples illegal.

Newsom has no authority to issue licenses in violation of the express power delegaged by the state. If he believes the proposition is unconstitutional, his remedy is to challenge the proposition in court. Not to act without authority in issuing illegal licenses. Think about what the media coverage would be if a Republican started issuing Concealed Carry permits in a state that didn't allow their issuance---saying that the 2nd Amendment trumped the lack of a Concealed Carry law.

[BikerNYC]

Think about what the media coverage would be if a Republican started issuing Concealed Carry permits in a state that didn't allow their issuance---saying that the 2nd Amendment trumped the lack of a Concealed Carry law.

Very true...but I can imagine many, many people cheering.

[SunStar]

Proposition 22

On March 7, 2000, the people of California voted on Proposition 22, a proposal to enact a state "Defense of Marriage Act" as an initiative statute. The text of Prop 22 reads:

“Only marriage between a man and a woman
is valid or recognized in California.”

Proposition 22 was ratified by an overwhelming majority of California voters, prevailing by a 23-point margin. Statewide, 4,618,673 votes were cast in favor of the proposition, comprising 61.4% of the total vote. Opponents garnered 2,909,370 votes, for 38.6% of the vote.

Final vote counts revealed that Proposition 22 won in 52 of California's 58 counties, including all of the major metropolitan areas except for San Francisco. The six counties which did not approve Prop. 22 were all in the immediate San Francisco Bay area, including: Alameda county, Marin county, San Francisco county, Santa Cruz county, Sonoma county, and Yolo county.

[Fee]

If the protestors were anti-Abortion demonstrators, or KKK, a semicolon would not stop a judge in CA to order the SWAT, ATF, FBI and other alphabet agencies from storming the compound and make arrests. Let us not be fooled or be naive.

[Quix]

Yeah, but homosexuals are

semi-

a lot of things . . .

--semi-bright,

--semi-insightful,

--semi-forward thinking,

--semi-healthy,

--semi-addicted to each other. They'd be more addicted to each other for longer periods but it takes too much work and risk and responsible abandonment. Hedging their bets with one foot in someone else's bed or . . . all the time kind of hinders that.

--semi-idiots about health risks,

--semi-stupid about sociological implications of their 'not harm anyone else' choices;

--semi-arrogant, Welllll, some are well over the line of semi-but most are still somewhat sheepish about their chosen activities enough to not quite manage full blown arrogant ALL the time.

--semi-selfish, . . . Welllll, most are probably well into selfish but even a lot of the most selfish can be amazingly thoughtful and charitable when they feel like it.

--semi-balanced, . . . It's hard to be more balanced between work, activism, indoctrinating of the nearest youth and keeping 3-8 . . . buddy butts happy.

--semi-off the wall,

--semi-flakes,

--semi-delluded [wholesale in sexual areas but decent decorators],

--semi-thoughtful [lots with the current flame or conquest--not at all toward society or the 2nd ranking or has been partner(s)],

--semi-committed [great when it's easy or seems to offer them a good deal--little to not at all when it really costs them something persistently],

--semi-sexy [mostly too addicted to lust to be wholesale sexy. Really sexy requires responsibility to afford the true freedom of true abandonment necessary for quality sex available only in a monogomous long term relationship];

--semi-durable--with a life span 10-20 years shorter than their cohorts--they must be getting their visions of growing old together via marriage from something they are sharing smoking.

--semi-dogmatic--they don't have the persistence to be durably dogmatic. When their hormones are raging and their anger at a similar volume, the dogmatism is intense. When they are alone in their self-pity at the ending of yet another short term relationship with perhaps someone too short or more selfish--then their energy all goes to self-pity or figuring out which mode of suicide would be the most dramatic.

--semi-religious [religious enough to feel comforted but not enough to make any real difference in their eternal destiny].

--semi-moral [not enough to give the truly moral any competition but enough to justify in their own eyes a good argument--as long as the morality doesn't really cost them any pleasure, selfishness or grand-standing chits.

--semi-altruistic--again--as long as it doesn't cost them anything very serious very long.

--semi-responsible--well--quasi safe sex if they're not tooooo horney and not in toooo much of a hurry and if they're not trying to 'share the wealth' of the intense thrill that HIV is supposed to be !!!

--semi-caring toward children--as long as the children wholesale meet their needs, fantasies and unmet attachment needs from their own childhood and and as long as the kids serve as great props in legal and other social grandstanding.

--semi-ridiculous--wellllll--some are wholesale over the line of extremely ridiculous but all of them are at least

semi-ridiculous--ever seen a gay parade even in the media? And can you think of a better word than ridiculous when considering Shrillery and Reno or the public french kiss by what's their farces? Maybe semi- is a bit generous on this one but . . . a lot out of the limelight probably qualify as semi-ridiculous in a list of ways and over the line ridiculous in a few.

--semi-bruised, batterd, mystified and clueless in their inner child but sufficiently 'together' to put together SOME sort of pretend whole image.

--semi-tough. I mean--there's bear clubs, chain gangs, firemen, military sorts, policemen, bikers etc. What else can they do when part of the generation for their being is to make up in spades every grasping way they can for the lack of maleness daddy never succeeded in transmitting to them.

--semi-masculine--whether receivers or givers . . . methinks the yearning must be much greater than any masculinity ever demonstrated or received. I think the frantic flitting from fat cheeked 'flower' to 'flower' has to be in part a desperate search for something daddy never managed to deliver. They just haven't figured out any other way to get their best pretense for masculinity applauded, thrilled or at least off.
. . .

[nmh]

Are the two judges gay or have a gay loved one?

It's ridiculous! The mayor should be arrested. He's making his own law in totally disregard to the will of the people who reinforced EXISTING law of what a marriage is.