About the 25 days CA was *supposed* to wait before going ahead with gay marriages. [View all]

[pnwmom]

The Federal Court had initially overturned Prop. 8; then issued a stay, preventing it from being overturned till the SCOTUS ruled; then the SCOTUS said the case should have never come to them and referred it back to the Federal Court; then the Federal Court lifted its stay and CA immediately started issuing marriage licenses -- but now some pro Prop 8 group has filed a complaint saying that they should have been given the standard 25 days to file their almost-certain-to-be-defeated appeal.

Not to worry. Here's why:

http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Same-sex-couples-line-up-to-be-married-4638052.php

Many legal experts who had anticipated such a last-ditch effort by gay marriage opponents said it was unlikely to succeed because the 9th Circuit has independent authority over its own orders — in this case, its 2010 stay.

While the ban's backers can still ask the Supreme Court for a rehearing, the 25-day waiting period is not binding on lower federal courts, Vikram Amar, a constitutional law professor with the University of California, Davis law school, said.

"As a matter of practice, most lower federal courts wait to act," Amar said. "But there is nothing that limits them from acting sooner. It was within the 9th Circuit's power to do what it did."