Prop. 8 hangs by a legal thread
U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker on Thursday kept same-sex marriages on hold in California for at least another week, but suggested that top state officials’ support for gay marriage ultimately may doom any effort to revive Proposition 8.
Walker’s comments were the first public airing of a possibility that has been increasingly under discussion by legal experts — that the fight over the constitutionality of Proposition 8 might not be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, as many have expected. Instead the case could be brought to an end by the strict legal rules about who is allowed to pursue a dispute in federal court.
Walker’s remarks came in a ruling that would allow same-sex marriages to resume in the state after Aug. 18 unless an appeals court puts them on hold longer.
