U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn R. Walker will release later Wednesday his ruling in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the federal constitutional challenge to California’s “Proposition 8” ban on same-sex marriage, the Court in San Francisco announced Tuesday (docket 09-2292). After the announcement, supporters of the ballot initiative filed a request for a stay pending appeal, should the judge strike down the ban. In that motion, the proponents said they would appeal an adverse decision to the Ninth Circuit Court, and possibly to the Supreme Court, and sought time to do so.
Simultaneously, the proponents asked Judge Walker to rule on their stay request at the same time he issued his ruling on the merits Wednesday. Under local court rules, it could be more than a month before the stay request might be acted upon, and the Proposition 8 backers argued that same-sex marriages could be performed during such an interval.
This blog will provide coverage of the ruling. Thanks to Rick Hasen of Election Law blog for an alert. Rick notes that the motions panel for this month in the Ninth Circuit does not appear to be inclined to issue any stay, if Judge Walker denies such an order. Any stay request to the Supreme Court would go first to Justice Anthony Kennedy, Circuit Justice for the Ninth Circuit.
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