San Mateo County officials said they stand ready to issue gay marriage licenses next week if a judge's ruling Thursday to begin allowing same-sex unions isn't put on hold again.
Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled at a San Francisco courthouse to allow gay marriages in California to resume starting Wednesday at 5 p.m., enough time for an appeals court to review the case. He had previously ruled Proposition 8, the voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, was unconstitutional but placed an immediate stay, or postponement, on the ruling so it would not take effect right away.
In San Mateo County, Deputy Clerk Theresa Rabe said her office will begin issuing same-sex marriage licenses at the scheduled time if the appeals court does not enact its own stay on Walker's ruling before then.
"We are getting ready for Wednesday at 5 o'clock unless the 9th Circuit appellate court tells us no," Rabe said. "It's another wait and see."
The office, which typically closes at 5 p.m. daily, may stay open late on Wednesday if Walker's ruling is upheld, Rabe said. Otherwise, the first same-sex wedding licenses will be printed as soon as 8 a.m. Thursday.
Assuming the clerk's office can issue same-sex wedding licenses, the county will hold weddings all day in its chapel, Rabe said. Typically, the chapel holds no more than four wedding per day but makes exceptions on special occasions, such as the first day same-sex marriages were allowed
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in 2008 when the courts overturned the previous ban.
Rabe said the clerk's office had a high number of calls from couples Thursday asking about the ruling, and some others came to the county office in Redwood City seeking information. They were told they will have to wait.
Among San Mateo County voters, 62 percent voted against Proposition 8 in November 2008 -- a 14-point swing compared to the statewide tally. When gay marriage was briefly legal in 2008, there were about 1,000 more weddings than the year prior in San Mateo County, a 25 percent increase.
The decision came as gay and lesbian couples lined up across the state, including at San Francisco City Hall, a few blocks away from the federal courthouse, hoping the judge would permit them to get married Thursday.
Jim Campbell, a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund, one of the groups defending Proposition 8, said they would "appeal immediately" to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to block same-sex marriages from taking place while the appeal is pending. The broader legal challenge is expected to stretch for another year or two and ultimately reach the U.S. Supreme Court.
In his order, the judge suggested that the Proposition 8 campaign may not have legal standing to even press its appeal, which would leave no defense of the law in the appeals courts. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown did not defend Proposition 8 during the January trial, and have now both taken the position that they consider the law unconstitutional.
Schwarzenegger today again expressed support for Walker's conclusions, saying in a statement that he believes the latest order "continues to place California at the forefront in providing freedom and equality for all people."
Legal experts predict that either the 9th Circuit or the Supreme Court is likely to put Walker's ruling on hold while the appeals courts hash out the larger question of whether Proposition 8 tramples on the equal rights of the state's same-sex couples. Lawyers for the two same-sex couples who sued to overturn Proposition 8 argued that they should be able to marry immediately, but Proposition 8 lawyers have argued that allowing same-sex marriages in the interim could foster legal confusion across California.
And if there is a window of time when same-sex couples marry while the Proposition 8 legal challenge is on appeal, there is no guarantee those marriage licenses will remain in force if Walker's decision is ultimately overturned. Gay and lesbian couples who marry now are in a different legal posture than the approximately 18,000 couples who married during the months before voters approved Proposition 8 -- marriages that remain valid.
Source:mercurynews.com
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