As testimony in the trial over the fate of Proposition 8 drew to a close, the central question of “what is marriage” dominated the heated — and occasional unintentionally humorous — debate.

Early Wednesday, the final defense witness, David Blankenhorn, the founder and president of the Institute for American Values, again locked horns with David Boies, a leading lawyer for the plaintiffs seeking to overturn the ban.

At one juncture, Mr. Boies asked Mr. Blankenhorn whether some of the experts he had earlier cited as saying same-sex marriage would damage traditional marriages had voiced their opinion with absolute certainty or merely suggested it was “likely.”

Read the rest of Jesse McKinley’s New York Times article here.