Appeals court refuses to allow same-sex marriages to proceed...
A federal appeals court today refused to allow same-sex marriages to proceed immediately in California while the legal challenge to Proposition 8 continues to unfold.
Gay-rights advocates had asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to lift a stay on a federal judge's ruling last summer striking down Proposition 8, arguing that the legal battle over the initiative is dragging on so long that it is further depriving gays and lesbians of their equal rights.
Andrew Pugno, general counsel for the Proposition 8 campaign, had called the plea to lift the stay "just another attempt to impose the minority's view of marriage on all of California by judicial fiat."
The 9th Circuit had earlier put Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling on hold while an appeal of his decision proceeds, but that has been further delayed by legal wrangling in the California Supreme Court. The Supreme Court last month agreed to the 9th Circuit's request to review whether backers of Proposition 8 have a legal right to defend the law when the governor and attorney general refuse to do so -- and the Supreme Court has indicated it may need the rest of the year to decide that issue.
The 9th Circuit will wait until that is resolved before taking up the appeal of Walker's ruling.
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