The Mercury News:

Supporters of California's Proposition 8 on Tuesday urged the U.S. Supreme Court to preserve the state's ban on same-sex marriage, firing the first legal volley of many to come before the justices hear arguments in the historic case in late March.

In an 83-page brief, Proposition 8's defenders decried a federal appeals court's ruling last year declaring the 2008 gay marriage ban unconstitutional. California voters had a right to define "the vital social institution of marriage" as being between a man and a woman, the Proposition 8 legal team wrote.

"In short, there is no warrant in precedent or precept for invalidating marriage as it has existed in California for virtually all of its history, as it was universally understood throughout this nation (and the world) until just the last decade, and as it continues to be defined in the overwhelming majority of states and nations," they declared.