California Court Asks For Semantics

Today, the California Supreme Court requested supplemental briefing in the Marriage Cases, asking counsel to set forth differences between California’s domestic partnership and marriage.  Another issue that will be addressed is, if a domestic partnership has the same legal effect as a marriage, at least as far as the state’s law goes, whether the word “marriage” contains any inherent value or significance.  This is the argument that really interests me.  It will be a while until the Ron and the Supremes give us a decision, but it’s interesting to see that the attorneys on both sides of the case have not addressed these issues so far.  (It’s also an excellent palaver to see Jerry Brown forced to defend the state’s existing marriage laws.)