SAN FRANCISCO — As same-sex couples raced to marry in California, the sponsors of Proposition 8 filed an emergency request to the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to stop weddings on the grounds that its decision was not yet legally final.
"If courts were free to disregard well-defined procedures at their whim, the public's confidence in the judiciary would suffer," lawyers for ProtectMarriage said in their 12-page application.
An attorney for the challengers of Proposition 8 expressed certainty that the request would be denied.
It went to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who hears matters involving the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The 9th Circuit issued an order late Friday that allowed gay marriages to resume, a decision ProtectMarriage said was premature and in violation of procedural rules.
Kennedy wrote Wednesday's ruling that required the federal government to recognize same-sex marriages. He dissented in the Proposition 8 decision, which said ProtectMarriage and other initiative sponsors could not stand in the place of state officials to defend their measures in federal court.
UC Davis law professor Vikram Amar said Kennedy would agree to stop the marriages only if the court was willing to consider reopening the Proposition 8 case at the request of ProtectMarriage. Amar estimated that only one or two such requests are granted in a decade.
"I would be pretty shocked if he granted a stay," Amar said.
ProtectMarriage contended that the 9th Circuit should not have taken any action in the case until Wednesday's Supreme Court decision on Proposition 8 was technically final. The group said high court rulings are not binding for 25 days, a period in which a party in a case can ask for reconsideration.
The 9th Circuit normally waits 25 days before acting on a case just decided by the Supreme Court. But in a surprise move, a three-judge panel that included liberal jurist Stephen Reinhardt lifted a hold it had placed on a 2010 injunction ordering state officials to stop enforcing the gay marriage ban.
Gay couples were marrying up and down the state within hours.
Amar said the appeals court had the power to take such action. Chapman University law professor John Eastman, a supporter of Proposition 8, disagreed, saying the court's action had violated legal rules.
The couples who filed the federal challenge of the 2008 ballot measure headed out to get marriage licenses within an hour of the 9th Circuit's decision. One couple married Friday evening at Los Angeles City Hall, the other at San Francisco City Hall. San Francisco will continue to issue licenses and perform marriages through the weekend.
ProtectMarriage said the 9th Circuit's decision smacked of "corruption."
"Suspiciously, the 9th Circuit's announcement late Friday ordering same-sex marriages came as a surprise, without any warning or notice to Proposition 8's official proponents," ProtectMarriage said in a statement.
"However, the same-sex couple plaintiffs in the case, their media teams, San Francisco City Hall, L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the California attorney general all happened to be in position to perform same-sex marriages just minutes after the 9th Circuit's 'unexpected' announcement."
The Supreme Court cleared the way for same-sex marriage in California by deciding 5 to 4 that ProtectMarriage did not have the legal authority to appeal the injunction against the measure. State officials, who did have the power, refused to appeal the injunction by now-retired Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker.
ProtectMarriage has argued that the injunction applied only to the two same-sex couples who sued, and the group has not ruled out a long-shot challenge in a state or federal district court to limit the effect of Walker's ruling.
But Gov. Jerry Brown and Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris, supporters of gay marriage, said Walker's order compelled them to stop enforcing the marriage ban statewide.
maura.dolan@latimes.com
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Prop. 8 sponsors ask U.S. Supreme Court to stop same-sex weddings
Dengan url
http://sehatgembiralami.blogspot.com/2013/06/prop-8-sponsors-ask-us-supreme-court-to.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Prop. 8 sponsors ask U.S. Supreme Court to stop same-sex weddings
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Prop. 8 sponsors ask U.S. Supreme Court to stop same-sex weddings
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar