California Gay Marriage on Hold as Case Is Appealed

After overturning the ban prohibiting same-sex marriage, Judge Walker was ready to start allowing gay marriages to resume in California on Wednesday. But the region’s federal appeals court has put that on hold :

The ruling, issued by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, came less than a week after a federal district judge, Vaughn R. Walker, lifted a stay he had imposed to allow proponents of the ban to argue why same-sex marriages should not proceed. On Aug. 4, Judge Walker ruled that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional.

Even when lifting his stay on Thursday, Judge Walker allowed six days for the Ninth Circuit to review his ruling. That left many gay and lesbian couples and their supporters hopeful that same-sex marriages would resume Wednesday at 5 p.m., when Judge Walker’s stay would have expired.

That will not happen. Now, such weddings will not resume until, at least, the appeals court decides the case. And perhaps not until it is decided by the United States Supreme Court, where it seems to be headed.

The article notes that two of the defendants named in the case—Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown of California—have voiced opposition to Proposition 8. Ideally, that shouldn’t matter since they were elected by the state’s citizens to enforce the laws. But as Judge Walker has already shown, the concept of “will of the people” doesn’t seem to mean much in California.