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SAN FRANCISCO – A federal appeals court put same-sex weddings in California on hold indefinitely Monday while it considers the constitutionality of the state's gay marriage ban. The decision, issued by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, trumps a lower court judge's order that would have allowed county clerks to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples on Wednesday. Lawyers for the two gay couples that challenged the ban said Monday they would not appeal the panel's decision on the stay to the Supreme Court.

The Ninth Circuit has stayed Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling in the high-profile Constitutional challenge to California's same-sex marriage ban. The case is scheduled to be heard in early December. So hold the wedding bells. There is some good news, though, for the same-sex plaintiffs: The court warned in its order that it's considering dismissing the appeal on the grounds that the appelants -- who don't include the Governor or Attorney General -- lack standing. "In addition to any issues appellants wish to raise on appeal, appellants are directed to include in their opening brief a discussion of why this appeal...

Did you know that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are bigots? Ditto for the justices of New York's, Maryland's and Washington's highest state courts. And there are at least 7 million bigots in California alone, along with legions more across the country. Their strange and aberrant delusion? They believe -- or say it's reasonable to believe -- that traditional marriage is a social good that serves our nation well. So says federal Judge Vaughn Walker, who recently overturned Proposition 8 -- passed by California voters in 2008 to enshrine one man/one woman marriage in their state's constitution. Walker ruled Prop...

The Most Egregious Performance Ever by a Federal District Judge August 13, 2010 2:29 PM By Ed Whelan Consider the totality of Judge Walker’s conduct in the anti-Prop 8 case: Let’s start with Walker’s initial case-management conference when he determined, to the surprise even of plaintiffs’ lawyer Ted Olson, that the case couldn’t be resolved, one way or the other (as other courts have done in similar cases), as a matter of law but would instead require extensive discovery into supposed factual issues. Let’s continue with Walker’s insane and unworkable inquiry into the subjective motivations of the more than seven...

U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker should have recused himself, but he had a legal and political statement he wanted to make. The people of California spoke clearly at the polls in 2008 when they passed an amendment to the state Constitution that defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman. The public debate was held, the media wars were fought, both sides spent millions of dollars and the people voted for Proposition 8 by a margin of 52% to 48%. The people's will carried the day, as it is supposed to — until U.S. District...

If you’d like to know what hours of fingernail scraping on a chalkboard feels like, simple give the recent California marriage decision a close read. It’s so blatantly biased as to border on comical. And because it is so over-the-top, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will find it hard to uphold it without employing some creative legal gymnastics to minimize the damage created. The man responsible for the opinion is United States District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker, whose conduct at trial and tone in the opinion resembles Perez Hilton at the Miss America pageant. Who can forget Hilton...

SAN FRANCISCO – The federal judge who overturned California's same-sex marriage ban has more bad news for the measure's sponsors: he not only is unwilling to keep gay couples from marrying beyond next Wednesday, he doubts the ban's backers have the right to challenge his ruling. Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker on Thursday rejected a request to delay his decision striking down Proposition 8 from taking effect until high courts can take up an appeal lodged by its supporters. One of the reasons, the judge said, is he's not sure the proponents have the authority to appeal since...

The sponsors of California's gay marriage ban have asked an appeals court to stop a federal judge's order allowing same-sex weddings to begin next week. The lawyers defending Proposition 8 asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late Thursday to impose a stay that would halt gay marriages while the court considers the judge's ruling that struck down the ban.

When a federal judge last week struck down California's Proposition 8 as unconstitutional, proponents of same-sex marriage cheered the decision at rallies in West Hollywood and San Francisco. Public displays of displeasure at U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker's ruling were far and few between. But Walker's decision struck an angry chord with many who voted for Proposition 8 in 2008. On Thursday, he extended a temporary hold on his order until Wednesday to give sponsors of the measure time to appeal the ruling. What was once a moral argument has morphed into a debate over the democratic process...

Judge Vaughn Walker has lifted the stay on his Proposition 8 ruling, which deemed a ban on gay marriage as unconstitutional. Walker's ruling last week was ground breaking, but it still kept the ban on gay marriage intact, until Prop 8 was ruled on by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Walker has now removed the stay, and will allow for gays and lesbians to marry in the state of California. Walker said that he would lift the stay on August 18th. The LA Times reports that the temporary hold on gay marriage is to allow supporters of Prop 8...

SACRAMENTO - Judge Vaughn Walker has lifted a stay in order regarding last week's verdict that stated Proposition 8, California's law that defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman, is unconstitutional.

The judge who threw out California's ban on gay marriage said Wednesday he is prepared to decide whether to stay his ruling pending appeal. U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, chief of the court in San Francisco, ruled last week that Proposition 8, adopted by California voters in 2008, is unconstitutional. The court said he plans to issue his decision on a stay Thursday morning. Walker issued a temporary stay last week. If he decides to keep his ruling from taking effect pending appeal, same-sex couples might be barred from marriage in California for several years, the Los Angeles Times said....

U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker's Aug. 4 ruling striking down California's Proposition 8 asserted far more than was necessary to redefine marriage as being between any two persons. Judge Walker's decision included controversial "findings of fact" that amounted to a massive new salvo in the culture wars over sexuality. Drawing up his judicial robes, Judge Walker rejected "stereotypes and misinformation" that "have resulted in social and legal disadvantages for gays and lesbians." He denied that there is "any rational basis" for distinguishing the marriage of man and woman from same-sex relationships. For example, Judge Walker found no reason why...

The decision by federal judge Vaughan Walker to invalidate California’s Proposition 8 both recycles and revives some of the tired, misleading clichés regarding the same sex marriage controversy. These distortions demand direct, concise correction and rebuttal. 1. “Proposition 8 was a mean-spirited ban on gay marriage.” TRUTH: Proposition 8 banned nothing. The ubiquitous headlines describing this voter-mandated change in the California constitution as a “gay marriage ban” amount to the worst example of journalistic malpractice in recent years. The entire proposition consisted of only fourteen words: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”...

SACRAMENTO, California, August 9, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is urging Judge Vaughn Walker to discontinue the stay that the judge placed on the enforcement of his own ruling against Proposition 8, and to thereby let homosexuals marry.Judge Walker issued his explosive decision against traditional marriage last week; however, he decided to enjoin enforcement of his order and not to allow gay “marriages” to commence immediately in the state, pending the inevitable appeal of his ruling by defenders of true marriage. "The Administration believes the public interest is best served by permitting the Court’s judgment to go into effect,...

When do you know it's over? When do you know that civilization has collapsed inwardly to such an irreparable extent that the next stop is barbarism? When is that Weimar moment?Certainly, the legalization of abortion was one such moment, as barbarism is defined as the inability or unwillingness to recognize another person as a human being. Abortion is the denial of procreative sex by nullifying its effects, which are seen as accidental. If you have an accident and conceive a baby, you can just clean up the mess by aborting it.Now we are experiencing another Weimar moment, which also denies...

California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown urged a federal judge Friday to permit same-sex marriages to resume in the state immediately. Brown told U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker that his historic ruling that overturned Proposition 8 probably will be upheld by higher courts. He said his office last year opposed a pretrial request to block Proposition 8 only because the legal and factual issues had not then been explored. "That has now occurred," Brown's office said. "And while there is still the potential for limited administrative burdens should future marriages of same-sex couples be later declared invalid, these potential...

Yesterday’s ruling by a California federal court striking down the state’s ban on gay marriage opens a constitutional Pandora’s Box. The court ruled that the gay marriage ban violates the Equal Protection Clause because homosexuals should be just as free to marry whoever they choose as heterosexuals. The court concluded that there is no rational basis for a distinction between the marriage of a man and a woman and the marriage of a man and a man. Whether the failure to see any rational distinction there is itself rational will be decided on appeal. But as of now the decision...

Aug. 6 (Bloomberg) -- California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown opposed a request by supporters of a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages to stay a federal judge’s order that found the ban violates the U.S. Constitution. “Proposition 8 is unconstitutional,” Brown, a Democrat running for governor, said today in a filing in federal court in San Francisco. “The public interest weighs against its continued enforcement.” Schwarzenegger, a Republican serving his last term, said in a separate court filing that waiting for the appeals court to review Walker’s ruling before letting it go into effect isn’t necessary to...

After Vaughn Walker was nominated for the federal court in 1987, gay activists took issue with his role as a lawyer for the U.S. Olympic Committee who successfully sued to bar a San Francisco sports festival from calling itself the "Gay Olympics." After Walker issued a landmark ruling Wednesday that overturned California's Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage, his detractors took issue with the fact that the judge is gay. As the topic stoked Internet and talk radio chatter, some blasts aimed at the presiding judge of the U.S. District Court of Northern California in San Francisco were direct and...