It's not so much that it isn't grammatically correct but that, because it's mispunctuated and has a word missing, it doesn't make sense and it doesn't say what they meant it to say. The main problem is the missing word.
The Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund had asked the judge to issue an order commanding the city to "cease and desist issuing marriage licenses to and/or solemnizing marriages of same-sex couples; to show cause before this court."
It's not entirely fair to criticize a partial excerpt of the sentence (and from only one, online source), but it seems that what they wanted to say was "...cease and desist, or show cause [for not ceasing and desisting] before this court." It should be a comma, not a semicolon; but if the word "or" had been in there, they probably could have gotten away with the semicolon.
So it's really "the 'or' story," not "the semicolon story." :)
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sforzinda
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Date: 2004-02-20 10:20 am (UTC)The Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund had asked the judge to issue an order commanding the city to "cease and desist issuing marriage licenses to and/or solemnizing marriages of same-sex couples; to show cause before this court."
It's not entirely fair to criticize a partial excerpt of the sentence (and from only one, online source), but it seems that what they wanted to say was "...cease and desist, or show cause [for not ceasing and desisting] before this court." It should be a comma, not a semicolon; but if the word "or" had been in there, they probably could have gotten away with the semicolon.
So it's really "the 'or' story," not "the semicolon story." :)