The California Supreme Court will hear several legal challenges to a new ban on gay marriage, but gay couples to will not be able to continue marrying before it rules.

The court accepted three lawsuits that argue that voters alone did not have the authority to enact such a significant constitutional change, the Associated Press reports.

The lawsuits argue that voters improperly abrogated the judiciary's authority by stripping same-sex couples of the right to wed after the high court earlier ruled it was discriminatory to prohibit gay men and lesbians from marrying.

"If given effect, Proposition 8 would work a dramatic, substantive change to our Constitution's 'underlying principles' of individual on a scale and scope never previously condoned by this court," lawyers for the same-sex couples stated in their petition.

Earlier this year, the court ruled that gay couples could marry and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has already twice vetoed a legislative attempt to allow gay marriages.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam on November 20, 2008 11:08AM