ACLU, NCLR File Briefs in Support of Federal Prop 8 Lawsuit

Gay rights organizations have thrown their support behind the latest legal challenge to Proposition 8, intervening in a federal court case arguing that California's voter-approved gay marriage ban is unconstitutional. In court briefs filed Thursday night, the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Center for Lesbian Rights formally endorsed the arguments of a high-powered legal team trying to block Prop 8 in federal court in San Francisco. Gay rights groups have been reluctant to take the legal fight over gay marriage to the federal courts, worried that the U.S. Supreme Court may be too conservative to back the legal right of same-sex couples to wed if the case ever reaches the justices. But a lawsuit filed in May has forced the hand of gay rights lawyers, who until now pressed the case for gay marriage in state courts and legislatures around the country. A new legal group, representing two California gay couples seeking the right to marry, sued to invalidate Prop 8 under the federal constitution, backed by former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson and prominent attorney David Boies. Full Story from Mercury News

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