Brown Asks Court to Overturn Prop. 8

California’s attorney general has reversed position and asked the state’s supreme court to void the ban on gay marriage enacted by voters in November, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Jerry Brown said in a filing yesterday that Proposition 8 is "inconsistent with the guarantees of individual liberty" in the state's charter, and that such guarantees should not be nullified by popular vote.

Brown, who had initially indicated he would support the ban before the California Supreme Court, said he has reviewed earlier rulings and decided he could not defend the initiative. Former Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr, lead counsel for supporters of Proposition 8, filed a motion yesterday calling for the 18,000 same-sex marriages performed in California before the election to be invalidated. (More Jerry Brown stories.)