Lewis v. Alfaro
Description: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and County Clerk Nancy Alfaro exceeded their legal authority in issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples when they were not legally valid in California.
ADF attorneys seek award of legal fees after win in San Francisco same-sex 'marriage' license case
SAN FRANCISCO — Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund filed a motion for attorneys’ fees with the California Supreme Court today, seeking to recoup costs incurred in its successful lawsuit against the county clerk of San Francisco.
The court ruled August 12 that Mayor Gavin Newsom and County Clerk Nancy Alfaro exceeded their legal authority in issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in February and also ruled that the licenses are invalid.
"As an elected public official, Mayor Newsom should have obeyed the law. If he had done so, this legal action would have been entirely unnecessary," said ADF Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence, who argued the case Lewis v. Alfaro before the California Supreme Court May 25.
The motion for fees filed today states that the petitioners in the case "benefited all California citizens by ensuring that public officials may not disregard the law based on their own opinion of the constitution."
On October 15, a California Superior Court judge allowed ADF attorneys representing the Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund to move forward with a separate case against the City and County of San Francisco in an effort to defend California’s marriage laws in state court.
ADF is a legal alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the right of people to freely live out their faith. Launched in 1994, ADF employs a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family.
Previous News Releases
Related Resources
ABOUT Jordan Lorence
Jordan Lorence serves as senior counsel and director of strategic engagement with Alliance Defending Freedom where he plays a key role with the Strategic Relations and Training Team. His work encompasses a broad range of litigation, with a primary focus on religious liberty, freedom of speech, student privacy, conscience rights of creative professionals, and the First Amendment freedoms of public university students and professors. Since 1984, he has represented litigation clients across the nation. Lorence earned a J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1980. He is admitted to the bar in Minnesota, Virginia, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Supreme Court, and multiple federal appellate and district courts.