Federal Court Of Appeals Grants Proposition 8 Stay

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has ruled to grant a stay on United States Chief District Judge Vaughn Walker’s ruling of August 4th while the ruling is appealed. The two-page court order granting the stay at the request of Protect Marriage, the proponents of Proposition 8, includes an agreement by the 9th Circuit Court to expedite its scheduled hearing on the appeal, and a different three justice panel than issued today’s ruling intends to hear the case during the week of December 6th, moving up the deadlines for both side to file their written arguments on whether the Proposition 8 campaign has the legal authority to appeal Walker’s original order by November 1st. It is doubtful that Protect Marriage has in fact the legal standing to appeal the ruling since although they defended the case in court; they were not named as the defendants. Instead, the federal trial challenging the constitutional validity of the California gay marriage ban named the state itself as defendants, and neither Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger nor Attorney General Jerry Brown expressed an interest in defending the law on appeal.