SF JUDGE WON'T HALT MARRIAGES: From the Los Angeles Times

As the number of same-sex marriages climbed to more than 2,600 here Tuesday, a San Francisco Superior Court judge refused to order an immediate stop to the unions, instead allowing city officials until March 29 to return to court to argue the merits of their case.

Mayor Gavin Newsom last week ordered city officials to begin marrying gays and lesbians despite state statutes that limit marriage to "a man and a woman." The mayor vowed Tuesday to continue performing the marriages until he was ordered to stop, raising the prospect that thousands more same-sex couples will hold marriage licenses by the time the legal battle returns to court.

"We are more resolved than ever," Newsom said. "I took an oath literally to support the Constitution, and that's what I'm doing. The issue here is simple: The state's Constitution does not permit discrimination at all, anywhere, period. We are in full compliance with our state's equal protection clause prohibiting discrimination in any form."

Judge James L. Warren's late-afternoon order came in response to a request by the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund for an immediate halt to the government-sanctioned marriages. Attorneys for the group--which represents a California taxpayers organization that supported a 2000 ballot initiative against gay marriage--argued that Newsom's move to provide marriage licenses to gays and lesbians constituted "municipal anarchy."

But after a three-hour hearing packed with media and couples who had tied the knot in recent days, Warren ruled that there was not enough evidence of harm to the plaintiffs to justify immediate action. Instead, he issued an order to the city to either "cease and desist ... solemnizing the same-sex marriages" or return to court to lay out the reasons why they should be allowed to continue. Warren indicated that he may ultimately have to consider whether the state's family code violates the equal protection clause of the California Constitution, as Newsom asserts.

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posted by Eve at 3:44 AM | link

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