Three federal judges ruled today that gay marriage cannot resume in California until state and federal
appeals courts decide the fate of Proposition 8–something that may be more than a year away.
Judges Stephen Reinhardt, Michael
Daly Hawkins and N. Randy Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit issued a statement saying they reviewed cases cited
by Prop. 8 foes in their motion to reinstate same-sex marriage but decided to maintain an injunction
against Judge Vaughn Walker's previous ruling.
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Jordan Lorence, senior vice counsel and vice president of Alliance Defense Fund, a coalition of Christian attorneys and organizations backing Prop. 8, reacts: “It is a significant development in favor of marriage.”
Well, one kind of marriage.
Chad Griffin, board president of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, said his group's position has not changed since filing the motion with the Ninth Circuit several weeks ago:
“We felt then, as we do now, that it is decidedly unjust and unreasonable to expect California's gay and lesbian couples to put their lives on hold and suffer daily discrimination as second-class citizens while their U.S. District Court victory comes to its final conclusion.”
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.