CALIFORNIA Court likely won't uphold gay unions

The justices are sending signals that they believe San Francisco was wrong.
COMBINED DISPATCHES
SAN FRANCISCO -- The city's bold decision to issue marriage licenses to thousands of gay couples in February and March appears doomed to fail in the California Supreme Court.
In two hours of rapid-fire arguments Tuesday, the majority of Supreme Court justices sent strong signals that San Francisco had no legal authority to defy California law and wed more than 4,000 same-sex couples.
And while the justices made clear they won't decide the constitutionality of California's ban on gay marriage for now, their questions left little doubt that same-sex weddings will not resume anytime soon in San Francisco or other cities across the state.
Some of the justices did express concern about the fate of the thousands of gay couples who married earlier this year. But they offered scant hope that those vows can hold up. Most justices wondered aloud why San Francisco, if it believed the state's ban on gay marriage should be struck down, did not turn to the courts before handing out the licenses.
"It's the city that created this mess," Justice Marvin Baxter, one of the court's most conservative members, remarked at one point. "If the law is so clear, you have options."
The showdown in the Supreme Court stems from Attorney General Bill Lockyer's petition to shut down Mayor Gavin Newsom's renegade move. The Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based foe of gay marriage, joined Lockyer in the case.
Stopped marriages
The high court halted the marriages in March, after the state argued that San Francisco was creating civic chaos by flouting California laws that limit marriage to a union between a man and a woman. Lockyer has argued that San Francisco threatened the uniformity of statewide marriage laws, and that Newsom should challenge the constitutionality of the gay marriage ban in court before deciding for himself whether it violates the equal rights of gay couples.
The justices have 90 days to rule on the case. But even if they rule against San Francisco, the fight over gay marriage in California is far from over. Several cases now in the lower courts are designed to finally determine whether the ban on same-sex marriage is legal.
Tuesday's argument focused solely on whether San Francisco had the power to issue the approximately 4,000 licenses to gay couples, and the validity of those marriages.
In other developments:
UA gay couple's challenge to Arizona's ban on same-sex marriages has been turned away by the state Supreme Court.
Without comment Tuesday, the state's highest court let stand an appeals court ruling that upheld the 1996 state law.
Phoenix couple Don Standhardt and Tod Keltner in December asked the high court to review the Court of Appeals decision, arguing the statute discriminates against gay couples and their children by violating the state Constitution's privacy and equal treatment clauses.
UTwo city clerks in Massachusetts confirmed Tuesday they are issuing marriage licenses to out-of-state gay couples, even as three other clerks temporarily stopped the practice under pressure from the governor.
The Attleboro clerk said the city solicitor authorized her to issue licenses to gay couples from the 11 states that have not adopted Defense of Marriage Acts that bar same-sex weddings.