For the second time in the past eight days, the California Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to order county clerks across the state to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. In a brief order, without a noted dissent, the state court turned down a plea by the clerk of San Diego County to halt all such licensing until the legal status of the “Proposition 8” ban is further clarified.

The state court is still considering two pleas to keep “Proposition 8” intact throughout most if not all of California, on the theory that it remains binding in the state despite a federal judge’s 2010 decision striking it down in the case of two same-sex couples. One of those challenges is by the sponsors of the ballot measure, the other by the San Diego County clerk. State officials and the clerks of twenty other California counties are resisting those requests.

Recommended Citation: Lyle Denniston, Plea to stop same-sex marriages fails, SCOTUSblog (Jul. 23, 2013, 7:45 PM), https://www.scotusblog.com/2013/07/plea-to-stop-gay-marriages-fails/