JUDGE RULES SAME-SEX MARRIAGES MAY BEGIN WEDNESDAY UNLESS HIGHER COURT INTERVENES

 East County News Service

August 13, 2010 (San Diego) – U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker lifted a stay on gay marriages yesterday, after overturning Proposition 8 as unconstitutional last week. The judge declined to implement his order immediately, however, giving opponents time to appeal to a higher court. If the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals does not intervene, same-sex marriages may occur starting Wednesday.
 

San Diego’s Assessor/Recorder/Clerk’s office is accepting reservations for ceremonies to be performing as early as Wednesday, provided the ruling holds.

A Ninth Circuit Court motions panel today set a fast-paced schedule for reviewing a plea to put on hold, for several months, a federal judge’s ruling striking down California’s Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage. The panel ordered briefing completed by Monday morning --two days before the ruling would go into effect if it were not postponed.
 

Opponents of gay marriage have vowed to take the battle to the U.S. Supreme Court if the 9th Circuit does not overturn Judge Walker’s decision. But the L.A. Times today notes that the State of California was a defendant in that case, but both Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown  have stated that they will not appeal.  So other may be found to lack standing to take their claim to the high court.

Apart from gay couples, California's economy stands to reap a$370 milllion boom through revenues in the wedding industry if same-sex marriages are legalized, a 2008 UCLA study predicted.