In defending his refusal to appeal a judge's order overturning California's ban on same-sex marriage, Attorney General Jerry Brown said the sponsors of the ballot measure can appeal it themselves - a statement that might aid their efforts to preserve the ban in court.

Brown, the Democratic candidate for governor, made the comment in Tuesday's debate after Republican Meg Whitman criticized his non-defense of Proposition 8, the November 2008 initiative defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman.