http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/kr/20040414/lo_krphiladelphia/lawexceedscityspowerlawyersays
Philadelphia Daily News and Inquirer
Wed Apr 14, 3:51 AM ET
By Michael Currie Schaffer, Inquirer Staff Writer
Philadelphia's benefits for same-sex partners represent an illegal city effort to redefine marriage, a lawyer seeking to overturn the law told the Pennsylvania Supreme Court yesterday.
Dennis Abrams said City Council's landmark 1998 gay-rights laws overstepped Philadelphia's legal authority in creating life-partnership status. He called that status analogous to marriage.
"The City of Philadelphia, I submit, doesn't have the right to do that," Abrams said. He argued that only the state has the right to define marriage.