By John Solomon
How the government's punishing of the exposure of official wrongdoing can linger for years
The Obama administration entered the legal battle over a state gay-marriage law late Thursday, prompting broad praise from gay-rights groups and dismay from supporters of traditional marriage.
Marriage advocates are anxiously watching the Supreme Court to see which cases it will take up — or turn down — regarding the constitutional status of gay marriage.
Backers of California's same-sex-marriage ban said Tuesday they will ask a federal appeals court in San Francisco to review the split decision by three of its judges that struck down the voter-approved law.
Conservative critics like to point out that the federal appeals court that just declared California's same-sex-marriage ban to be unconstitutional has its decisions overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court more often than other judicial circuits, a record that could prove predictive if the high court agrees to review the gay-marriage case on appeal.
California's top attorney has dealt another setback for those seeking to ban gay marriage with her request to allow the unions to resume immediately in the state, the latest in a string of about-faces siding with same-sex couples.
In Mr. Obama's first term, he indicated that Americans can "maintain a special designation for marriage between man and woman," and that "supporters of traditional marriage can hold that position without discriminatory animus," said Mr. Pugno.
Gay-rights groups giddy over Obama's challenge to California's gay wedding ban →
The administration's move to intervene against Proposition 8 is "very disappointing," said Andy Pugno, general counsel for the Proposition 8 Legal Defense Fund.
Gay-rights groups giddy over Obama's challenge to California's gay wedding ban →
