SAN FRANCISCO — The California Supreme Court agreed unanimously Wednesday to decide whether same-sex couples should be permitted to wed, prolonging the contentious legal battle for another year.
Meeting in closed session, the state's highest court voted without comment to review an October appeals' court ruling that upheld the prohibition on same-sex marriage. The court is not expected to issue a ruling until the end of next year.
Wednesday's decision does not necessarily mean that the state high court disagrees with the lower court ruling.
Although the Supreme Court could have avoided the contentious debate and let the ruling stand, the court often reviews decisions it supports if the case has statewide importance.
Christian conservatives, satisfied with the appeals' court decision, had urged the court not to take up the case. But a lawyer for one of the groups opposed to same-sex marriage expressed confidence Wednesday that his side would prevail.
"History, common sense and legal precedent are on our side," said Mathew D. Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, which promotes traditional Christian values in the law. "Marriage as the union of one man and one woman transcends political ideology and is grounded in millennia of human history."
Other opponents of same-sex marriage called the court's decision ominous.
Randy Thomasson, a spokesman for the VoteYesMarriage.comcoalition, which hopes to place an initiative against same-sex marriage on the 2008 ballot, said the measure would be "the only way to stop judges and politicians from destroying the beautiful, natural institution of marriage between a man and a woman."
Former Assemblyman Larry Bowler (R-Elk Grove), who is also backing the proposed ballot measure, complained that the state high court was "scheming to destroy marriage and the people's right to vote on marriage."
Bowler said he believed that the three women on the seven-member court were prepared to support same-sex marriage.
Justices Joyce Kennard and Kathryn Mickle Werdegar voted in an earlier case against an immediate nullification of same-sex marriage licenses granted in 2004 by San Francisco. But the justices have not expressed their views about the constitutionality of the state's marriage laws.
Justice Carol Corrigan, the court's newest member, also has never publicly confided her views of same-sex marriage, but Bowler said gay rights groups support her.
