Legal News

After Ninth Circuit Ruling, Same-Sex Marriage in Calif. Stays on Ice

By Ashby Jones

For a while there, the plaintiffs in the Proposition 8 case seemed to have all the momentum.

Last August, they won a blistering ruling from a lower-court judge that the measure, which bans same-sex marriage in California, is unconstitutional. And it certainly looked like they got a good draw with the makeup of the three-judge appellate panel who got the case next.

But then, the momentum slowed, most notably when the Ninth Circuit kicked the case to the California Supreme Court for clarification on a procedural issue.

On Wednesday, it slowed even more when the Ninth Circuit refused to let same-sex marriages resume in California while it considers the case. Click here for the San Francisco Chronicle story.

Plaintiffs had asked the Ninth Circuit to lift its suspension of Judge Vaughn Walker’s 2010 ruling while it considered the appeal. But in a one-sentence order, the three judges on the panel said they had reviewed the arguments and decided simply to “deny plaintiffs’ motion at this time.” The judges are Stephen Reinhardt, Michael Hawkins and N. Randy Smith.

The American Foundation for Equal Rights, which represents the plaintiffs, expressed disappointment.

“It is decidedly unjust and unreasonable to expect California’s gay and lesbian couples to put their lives on hold and suffer daily discrimination as second-class citizens while their U.S. District Court victory comes to its final conclusion,” Chad Griffin, the group’s chairman, said in a statement.

Prop. 8′s sponsors, a conservative religious coalition called Protect Marriage, said the court’s order avoids “the unnecessary confusion that would come from another brief legalization of same-sex marriage.”

“This decision is a victory for both Prop. 8 supporters and for the initiative process itself,” said the group’s lawyer, Andrew Pugno.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 23, 2011 (boomark / email).