CA Supremes: No Gay Marriage Until Court Hears the Whole Case

An effort to get the California Supreme Court to drop an injunction against gay marriage in California has failed:

Gay marriage won't be allowed to resume until state and federal appeals courts decide the fate of Proposition 8, the voter initiative that limited marriage to heterosexual couples, three federal judges ruled Wednesday.

Gay-rights advocates had asked the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to lift the hold put on a San Francisco federal judge's ruling last year that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional and said California authorities should cease enforcing it.

That ruling was stayed by the judge who made it, U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker, and the injunction was kept in place when the 9th Circuit said last fall that it would put the appeal by Proposition 8 backers on a fast track.

But the appeals court in January turned to the California Supreme Court with a question about whether those who drafted the initiative banning same-sex marriage have the right to appeal Walker's ruling in place of the original defendants, the governor and attorney general, who have refused to defend the ballot measure, which they deem discriminatory.

The state high court has indicated it won't hold hearings on the question of standing until at least September, meaning that the 9th Circuit won't address the case again until the end of the year or later.

In a terse denial of the latest effort to restore the right of gays and lesbians to marry, 9th Circuit Judges Stephen Reinhardt, Michael Daly Hawkins and N. Randy Smith said they had reviewed the cases cited by the gay-rights advocates but decided to maintain the injunction against Walker's ruling.

The American Federation for Equal Rights, a party to the effort to resume gay-marriage rights pending the appeal, described the denial of that fundamental right "un-American."

Note the way that article is written - "restore the right of gays and lesbians to marry." When did that "right" ever exist in California? There were various legal efforts to create a right where none existed but Prop 8 put an end to that.

Looks like this will continue to drag on as an issue, possibly into the next election cycle.