Calif. Poised to Strike Down Prop 8

In a federal appeals court hearing Monday, California judges appeared likely to strike down Proposition 8, the ballot measure that banned gay marriage in the state. In a legal balancing act, however, the judges are exploring methods of narrowly lifting the ban in such a way that the case would be less likely to go to the Supreme Court. The jurists are mulling over the option of declaring that once marriage rights were granted to same-sex couples they couldn’t be taken away by popular vote. They are also considering avoiding constitutional issues—ones that might land the case in the Supreme Court—by simply declaring that gay-marriage opponents had no legal standing to appeal the lower court decision that struck down Prop 8.