[JURIST] The California Supreme Court [official website] agreed Wednesday to hear a case challenging California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive], after California Attorney General Bill Lockyer [official website] requested [JURIST report] that the Court review an intermediate appellate court's decision to uphold [JURIST report] the same-sex marriage ban. In the appeals court, Lockyer argued [JURIST report] that California should be allowed to maintain its traditional definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman, approved by the Legislature in 1977 [text] and by voters in 2000 [text], and that most benefits afforded to spouses under state law are also available to same-sex couples through domestic partnership registration.

The lawsuits stem from San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's 2005 decision to issue marriage licenses to 4,000 same-sex couples. Reuters has more.