It all came down to a semicolon, the judge said. See SFGate.com: ‘Thanks to a semicolon, gays and lesbians keep marrying in San Francisco’.

bq. “I am not trying to be petty here, but it is a big deal … That semicolon is a big deal,” said San Francisco Superior Court Judge James Warren.

In San Francisco, gays and lesbians have been getting married (or should that be ‘married’) in large numbers although California law doesn’t allow this.

The judge in the case has said that eventually, the plaintiffs, who are applying for a cease and desist order, will succeed, but they must correct the punctuation in their application first.

bq. The Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund had asked the judge to issue an order commanding the city to “cease and desist issuing marriage licenses to and/or solemnizing marriages of same-sex couples; to show cause before this court.”

bq. “The way you’ve written this it has a semicolon where it should have the word ‘or’,” the judge told them. “I don’t have the authority to issue it under these circumstances.”

(Via redbird)