Civil Rights

A Cal State Fullerton lecturer who lost her job because she objected to signing a loyalty oath was reappointed Monday to teach next fall in an agreement worked out between the university and a national civil rights group. Wendy Gonaver, a Quaker and pacifist who said that California's required loyalty oath violated her religious beliefs and her right of free speech, will be allowed to attach a personal statement of her views when she signs the pledge. "It feels great," Gonaver said Monday.

Washington's International Spy Museum has settled a federal civil rights investigation by agreeing to make its exhibits more accessible to hearing- and vision-impaired visitors. The U.S. Justice Department said the settlement calls for the museum to add regularly scheduled tours that describe exhibits, special maps for the blind and captions for audio and interactive displays. Department and museum officials said the agreement, which carries no monetary penalty, may spur higher levels of access for the disabled at cultural institutions across the United States.

From Thursday's 5-4 Supreme Court decision in Boumediene vs. Bush: Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority in granting detainees federal court access: "Because our nation's past military conflicts have been of limited duration, it has been possible to leave the outer boundaries of war powers undefined. If, as some fear, terrorism continues to pose dangerous threats to us for years to come, the court might not have this luxury." "The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times.

Christopher Hammer and Arthur Smelt have tried to marry so many times they lost count. But they have never strayed far from their Mission Viejo home. "I've lived here all my life, so I fought my battle here," Hammer said. Self-described homebodies, Hammer and Smelt, both 48, were the first California couple to file a lawsuit over state and federal law that barred gay marriage. They were legally wed Tuesday morning at the Laguna Hills Civic Center, 11 years after their first commitment ceremony.

Few moms get to see two daughters married within minutes of each other. Doris Weddell, 75, was ecstatic. "I'm on a high," she said. "This is way up there. It's like childbearing." On a tree-shaded patio outside the Kern County clerk's office, Whitney Weddell, 43, and Tracy Weddell, 48, each exchanged vows with their longtime partners. They had to use the outdoor venue and volunteer ministers, because Kern County Clerk Ann Barnett stopped all civil marriages in advance of Tuesday.

In this farm town about 70 miles north of Sacramento, Colusa County Clerk Kathleen Moran carefully prepared for the big day. When the doors to her office swung open at 8:30 a.m., she waited. And waited some more. "We're ready for it," Moran said, expectant even as the morning ticked away. But not a same-sex couple was to be wed, nor a protester seen.

It was supposed to be a no-frills, no-fuss affair: Just a quick wedding and then get on with the day. Trying to avoid crowds in West Hollywood, Bill Walker, 51, and Kelly Ziegler, 40, hit the Airport Courthouse to get their license. They brought their children -- Elizabeth, 7, and James, 2. It was Walker's second same-sex marriage -- although the first was fictitious. Once a writer for the TV sitcom "Roseanne," he wrote what he said was the first gay wedding on TV.

The weather cooperated. The lines, when there were lines, moved quickly. Men married men and women married women, and the celebrators outnumbered the protesters. From big and small communities up and down California, scenes from the first full day of legal same-sex marriage.

Their suits were pressed, their smiles broad, and their place in line historic. Hank Donat, a 41-year-old writer, and Jeffrey Halpern, a 43-year-old executive, snagged the No. 1 spot for a marriage license and an official wedding in San Francisco, where it all began four years ago. "This is the happiest day of my life -- for the third time," Donat said. The couple were hitched in 2004 when San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom began same-sex marriages.

Re "From 1968 to eternity," Opinion, June 17 I am not sure where Todd Gitlin was in 1968, but I was observing the situation up close. I saw the decades-old fight for basic civil rights degenerate into a demand for special privileges. I saw Students for a Democratic Society trample on democratic principles. I saw academic freedoms and standards diminished by political correctness. Gitlin gives the movement credit for making it possible for Nicolas Sarkozy, descended from Jews, to be elected president of France.