California high court rules same-sex marriage ban violates state constitution News
California high court rules same-sex marriage ban violates state constitution

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of California [official website] Thursday overturned [opinion, PDF] a state ban on same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive], ruling 4-3 in In re Marriage Cases [case materials] that the ban violated protections on the right to "form a family relationship" enshrined in the California Constitution [text]. Rights groups said that the decision could lead to California becoming the second state after Massachusetts [JURIST report] to legalize same-sex marriage, but religious and conservative organizations are currently pushing to include a measure on the November ballot to write a ban on gay marriage into the state constitution.

The lawsuits stemmed from San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's 2004 decision to issue marriage licenses to 4,000 same-sex couples [JURIST report]. In 2006, the state attorney general requested [JURIST report] that the Court review an intermediate appellate court's decision to uphold [JURIST report] the same-sex marriage ban. AP has more. The San Francisco Chronicle has local coverage.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN calls for UK, France and Israel to leave Egypt

On November 7, 1956, the United Nations General Assembly approved Resolution 1001, which called on the United Kingdom, France and Israel to pull all of their military forces out of Egypt. The Resolution came during the Suez Canal crisis, during which Israel invaded Egypt with the support of the U.K. and France, after Egyptian President Gamal Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal. Read Resolution 1001.