Same-sex marriages in San Francisco

It's easy to sympathize with the elected officials in San Francisco who have begun issuing marriage licenses to gay couples -- they believe in this issue passionately, and they're doing something they believe in.

But they're also breaking the law.

And elected officials are sworn to uphold the law, even laws they disdain.

Four years ago, Californians overwhelmingly voted to define marriage exclusively as the union of a man and a woman. Unless that law is changed, no officeholder -- no matter how passionate -- has any business flouting it.

To do so is to insult both the voters and the constitution of California. If every official were to behave like those in San Francisco when they don't like a law, we would have anarchy, and people's faith in a system of laws based on democratic principles would be destroyed.

For those who are committed to changing California's law on marriage -- or any law -- there's an established process for initiating reform. They can protest in the streets, lobby their legislators, start a ballot initiative and take their case to the public.

The job of public officials is to enforce the law, even to work to change it -- but not to break it. -- Los Angeles Daily News