Battle Over Prop. 8 Reaches San Francisco Federal Appeals Court

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS/KCBS) -- A San Francisco courtroom will be center stage for the legal fight over California's ban on same-sex marriages come Monday morning.

A three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is set to hear two hours of arguments over Proposition 8.

The judges must decide whether opponents of same-sex marriage have legal standing to file an appeal on an earlier ruling that Prop. 8 is unconstitutional.

Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence has said his side will also argue that the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1970's heard a case from Minnesota and ruled then that it was okay for a state to define marriage as being between a man and a woman.

"This court being bound by that precedent needs to obey it rather than ignore it and act like it is writing on a blank slate here," said Lorence.

But advocates for the same-sex couples challenging Prop 8 argue there are many legal precedents that back up their position.

Ted Boutrous, an attorney with the American Foundation for Equal Rights, has

"Proposition 8 violates due process because marriage is a fundamental right of all citizens of this country as the Supreme Court has said over and over, at least 14 times," said Boutrous.

The two-hour, three-judge panel hearings will be broadcast live on the C-SPAN network.

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