Wall Street Journal: Will Gay Couples' Marriage Vows Survive California Court Review?

03/19/09 Wall Street Journal:

U.C. Davis law professor Vikram Amar said that "[w]hen you want a law to apply retroactively, usually you have to be explicit about it." The oral arguments included extended discussion of just this requirement.

Kenneth Starr that offered the "putative spouse doctrine" a way around retroactive application; it "grew out of cases where couples weren't aware that their marriage wasn't legally certified, [and] allows the government to treat a couple as if they were married, even if they were not." University of Southern California law professor David Cruz says of the doctrine that "[w]e haven't seen this kind of targeted wiping out of a specific group's rights before," while Chapman University School of Law Dean John Eastman finds that the doctrine "treats the individual situation in an equitable fashion, but doesn't alter the law at the same time."

(Source of reference to this article: ADF Alliance Alert)