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Squelching weddings

The Ninth Circuit Court could have lived up to its more progressive interpretations of Constitutional Law. But they chickened out.  They refused to lift the stay on California same-gender weddings that they imposed pending a decision in their federal court case. The case known as Perry vs Schwarzenegger was appealed to the Ninth Circuit after Judge Vaughn Walker ruled in favor of overturning Proposition 8. The Ninth Circuit suspended his ruling demanding the immediate resumption of weddings.

This is “an intolerable delay” since they sent it back to the California Supreme Court for a ruling on who has standing to bring the case and defend the case since the state has refused.  And the people who brought us Prop 8 are trying to defend it in court. The California Supremes said they needed the rest of the year.  Thus it be at least a year before it gets back to the 9th Circuit.

“The right to marry is not an abstract principle any more than might be said about the right to vote, the right to speak and the right to practice one’s religion,” Olson said. “Every day our fellow citizens are denied their most basic civil rights that their friends and neighbors freely enjoy … that discrimination inflicts countless injuries.”

So for now weddings for gay men and lesbians are squelched!