Stay on gay marriage lifted, California plaintiffs tie knot

SAN FRANCISCO - The lead plaintiffs in the U.S. Supreme Court case that overturned California’s same-sex marriage ban tied the knot Friday, about an hour after an appeals court cleared the way for same-sex couples in the state to obtain marriage licenses for the first time in 4½ years.

State Attorney General Kamala Harris presided at the wedding of Kris Perry and Sandy Stier of Berkeley at San Francisco City Hall. The couple sued to overturn the state’s voter-approved gay marriage ban along with Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo, of Burbank, who were married Friday evening at Los Angeles City Hall.

“By joining the case against Proposition 8, they represented thousands of couples like themselves in their fight for marriage equality,” Harris, who had asked the appeals court to act swiftly, said during Stier and Perry’s brief ceremony. “Through the ups and downs, the struggles and the triumphs, they came out victorious.”

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a brief order Friday afternoon dissolving, “effective immediately,” a stay it had imposed on gay marriages while the lawsuit challenging Proposition 8 worked its way through the courts.

Sponsors of California’s same-sex marriage ban said the appeals court’s decision was “disgraceful.”

“The resumption of same sex marriage this day has been obtained by illegitimate means. If our opponents rejoice in achieving their goal in a dishonorable fashion, they should be ashamed,” said Andy Pugno, general counsel for a coalition of religious conservative groups that sponsored Proposition 8.

“It remains to be seen whether the fight can go on, but either way, it is a disgraceful day for California,” Pugno said, calling the court’s decision an “abuse of power to manipulate the system and render the people voiceless.”

California voters passed Proposition 8 in 2008, six months after the California Supreme Court ruled that homosexuals had the right to wed.The state high court later ruled that the initiative was a valid state constitutional amendment but upheld the validity of an estimated 18,000 same-sex marriages that occurred before the election.

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on Wednesday that ProtectMarriage, the sponsors of Proposition 8, lacked legal authority or standing to appeal Walker’s ruling blocking the ballot initiative.

The high court said Proposition 8’s sponsors were not directly affected by Walker’s ruling. Only state officials had the right to appeal, and Harris and Gov. Jerry Brown, both Democrats, refused to do so.

The high court’s procedural decision lets stand a trial judge’s declaration that the ban violates the civil rights of gay Californians and cannot be enforced.

Opponents of same-sex marriage have argued that ruling applied only to the two same-sex couples who challenged the ballot measure.

Under Supreme Court rules, the losing side in a legal dispute has 25 days to ask the high court to rehear the case. The court said earlier this week that it would not finalize its ruling in the Proposition 8 dispute until after that time had elapsed.

It was not immediately clear whether the appeals court’s action would be halted by the high court.

“It is part and parcel of the utter lawlessness in which this whole case has been prosecuted,” said Chapman University School of Law professor John Eastman, a supporter of Proposition 8. “Normally, courts let the parties kind of pursue their legal remedies before they issue a mandate.”

He said the 25-day period for asking the Supreme Court to reconsider still applied and a rehearing, though extremely unlikely, remained a technical possibility.

“Tonight it is chaos and lawlessness, and anyone who is concerned about the rule of law ought to be deeply troubled by what happened here,” the constitutional-law professor said.

But University of California, Irvine, Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky said he knows of no instance in which the Supreme Court has granted a rehearing after delivering a full-blown ruling. He said he thinks the 9th Circuit’s action was legally appropriate.

“I was surprised,” Chemerinsky said. “They usually wait for the 25 days, and it just doesn’t become an issue. But there is no way the Supreme Court is going to reconsider this.”

Brown issued a statement late Friday afternoon saying that he had directed the state’s Department of Health to notify all 58 counties in the state that “same-sex marriage is now legal in California and that marriage licenses must be issued to same-sex couples immediately.”

County clerks who preside over marriages had said they were ready for same-sex weddings. Marriage licenses in the state already are gender-neutral, and clerks began receiving calls Wednesday from gay couples seeking to schedule appointments.

However, since word did not come down from the appeals court until mid afternoon Friday, most counties were not prepared to stay open late to accommodate potential crowds. The clerks in a few counties announced that they would stay open a few hours later.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles, on his last day in office, officiated at the Friday evening wedding of Katami and Zarrillo. Until Friday afternoon, the two had no idea when their marriage could take place.

“Nobody really knew; that’s what our lawyers are there for. We don’t really care about any of that at this point, but we’re on our way to see the mayor,” Zarrillo told KCRW, a public radio station in Los Angeles.

The pair was stuck in traffic driving between their home, the county office to obtain their marriage license and City Hall downtown. But by 6:30 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time they walked in front of dozens of television cameras, kissed Villaraigosa and were pronounced married.

“Your relationship is an inspiration to us all,” Villaraigosa said. “Today, your wait is finally over.”

“Equal feels different,” Katami said. His now-spouse, Zarrillo, added: “Equal feels good.”

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee announced that same sex couples would be able to marry all weekend in his city, which is hosting its annual gaypride celebration this weekend.

Harris rushed to San Francisco City Hall to perform marriages as soon as the Department of Public Health issued the order Friday, said her spokesman, Lynda Gledhill.

“On my way to S.F. City Hall. Let the wedding bells ring!” Harris said in a Twitter posting after the ruling.

Harris declared Perry, 48, and Stier, 50, “spouses for life,” but during their vows, they took each other as “lawfully wedded wife.”

The couple have been together for more than 15 years and have four sons. One of their twin sons served as ring-bearer as hundreds gathered at City Hall to watch the wedding.

“They have waited and fought for this moment,” Harris said. “Today their wait is finally over.”

Also in San Francisco, Bobby Meadows, 40, and Craig Stein, 39, were married on the balcony overlooking the City Hall rotunda. Meadows wore shorts and held a small bouquet of yellow, red and blue flowers. Stein wore jeans. The deputy marriage commissioner who presided over the ceremony hugged each as he handed them their marriage certificate.

“It’s amazing,” Meadows said in an interview. “I grew up never expecting to be able to do this in my lifetime, to announce the love for the man that I love. It’s overwhelming. It’s awesome.”

Same-sex marriage already was legal in 12 states and the District of Columbia - representing 18 percent of the U.S. population. With gay marriage resuming in California, that figure jumps to 30 percent.

There were more than 130,000 married, gay couples in the U.S. in 2010, according to estimates from the U.S. Census. Information for this article was contributed by Lisa Leff, Jason Dearen, Paul Elias and Mihir Zaveri of The Associated Press; by Maura Dolan, Anthony York, Maria L. La Ganga, Hailey Branson-Potts, Christine Mai-Duc and David Zahniser of the Los Angeles Times; by Joel Rosenblatt, Alison Vekshin and Michael B. Marois of Bloomberg News; and by Jennifer Medina, Malia Wollan and Ian Lovett of The New York Times.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 06/29/2013

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