San Diego county clerk Ernest Dronenburg has dropped his legal
challenge to revive Proposition 8, California's now-ended
constitutional amendment which limited marriage to heterosexual
couples.
According to The
Los Angeles Times, Dronenburg released a statement on Friday
saying that his bid was unnecessary because it duplicated ongoing
legal efforts to reinstate the ban.
Proposition 8 tumbled after the Supreme Court ruled that
interveners lacked standing to defend the law, leaving in place a
2010 circuit court ruling declaring it unconstitutional.
Within days after the Supreme Court ruled, the Ninth Circuit Court
of Appeals lifted its stay in the ruling, allowing same-sex marriages
to resume in California. On June 28, Governor Jerry Brown and
Attorney General Kamala Harris, both Democrats, ordered clerks in all
58 counties to resume issuing marriage licenses to gay couples.
Dronenburg had argued that the ruling only applied to the two
counties where plaintiffs live, not the entire state.
Protect Marriage, the group that sponsored the 2008 amendment, had
made similar arguments in its filing before the state Supreme Court.
Dronenburg's action had failed to attract support from other
county clerks, despite the urging of gay marriage opponents who
assured clerks that they would be legally protected.