If same-sex weddings resume in California next Thursday, the
happy couples may have more names to add to their thank-you lists than
that of U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, the San Francisco jurist who
last week struck down the 2008 voter-approved constitutional amendment
that made gay marriage illegal. They may have to address new cards to
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and California attorney general Jerry
Brown.
That’s because Brown and Schwarzenegger’s choosing not to appeal
Walker’s Aug. 4 ruling — and their contention that the state is ready to
begin issuing same-sex wedding licenses immediately — may turn out to
be almost as decisive a factor as the historic court ruling last week.
That possibility emerged Thursday in an 11-page ruling Walker issued to
deny a request by Proposition 8’s proponents for him to delay
implementing his own ruling allowing gay marriage until they can appeal
the case to the Ninth Circuit and perhaps all the way to the Supreme
Court.
But in a twist that caught some experts off guard, Walker not only
denied the motion but did so in a way that raises serious questions
whether Prop 8 proponents have any right to appeal the case at all. He
ruled that they not only failed to show that the resumption of gay
marr…
