SAN FRANCISCO - The California Supreme Court is set to hear oral argument on Tuesday, May 25th in Lockyer v. City and County of San Francisco (S122923) and Lewis v. Alfaro (S122865). At issue is whether an elected official who takes an oath to uphold the California Constitution may refuse to enforce what he believes to be an unconstitutional state statute or whether he must wait for a court to rule on the issue. The court may also rule on the validity of the more than 4000 marriage licenses issued to same-sex couples in San Francisco earlier this year.

In these cases, a legal team including the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), Lambda Legal, and the ACLU filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of Equality California, and Our Family Coalition, and ten same- sex couples, including some who were married in San Francisco and others who were prevented from doing so when the Supreme Court ordered San Francisco to halt issuing marriage licenses to the couples on March 11, 2004. The legal team has argued that the Court should wait to rule in these two cases until the Court has the opportunity to consider whether discrimination in marriage violates the California Constitution. NCLR, Lambda Legal, ACLU and the couples will be available for interviews on Tuesday, May 25, 2004. Please call the press contacts for interviews.