from the LA Times:

A federal judge Thursday refused to permanently stay his ruling overturning Proposition 8‘s ban of gay marriage but extended a temporary hold to give supporters time to appeal the historic ruling.U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn R. Walker, who overturned the measure on Aug. 4, agreed to give its sponsors until Aug. 18 to appeal his ruling to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. No new marriages can take place until then.

Walker’s decision came after supporters of the marriage ban warned they would take their case to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary to ensure that Walker’s ruling did not take effect.

The high court already has slapped down Walker once in the case. Lawyers for Proposition 8 appealed a pretrial decision to permit some broadcast of the trial proceedings, and the high court overturned Walker’s decision on a 5-4 vote.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown had urged Walker to permit same-sex marriages to resume, arguing the state was well-equipped to handle them.

An estimated 18,000 same-sex couples married during the six months it was legal in California in 2008, and the California Supreme Court later ruled that those marriages would remain valid.

The sponsors of the anti-gay marriage initiative told Walker that gay nuptials now would be clouded by uncertainty. The challengers countered that gay men and lesbians were capable of deciding for themselves whether to marry now or wait until the appeals conclude.

In weighing whether to put a ruling on hold, judges consider the likelihood that higher courts would uphold their ruling  and whether irreparable harm would be caused by a postponement.

Walker, who heard 13 days of testimony in January, said in his ruling Wednesday that Proposition 8 violated federal constitutional guarantees of equal protection and due process. He ruled that moral disapproval was not enough to deny gays what courts have determined is a fundamental right to marry.

Walker’s ruling will be reviewed by the U.S.9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has a majority of Democratic appointees. If the 9th Circuit upholds Walker’s decision, opponents of same-sex marriage said they would take the case to the more conservative U.S. Supreme Court, which has the final word on matters of federal constitutional law.

– Maura Dolan and Lee Romney in San Francisco

Tags: gay marriage