Trial Judge Orders Prop 8 Case Closed, Outcome Hinges On Supreme Court Decision

Judge James Ware issues an order under which same-sex couples will be allowed to marry in California — but the Supreme Court needs to decide whether it will hear an appeal of the case before the order will go into effect.

The trial court judge in California who has taken over hearing the federal court case challenging Proposition 8, the state’s amendment limiting marriages to one man and one woman, ordered the case closed today — which would allow same-sex couples to marry in California. The couples, however, will have to wait on the Supreme Court to be able to marry.

A stay of the case by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals pending the Supreme Court’s determination of whether it takes the case means that a “mandate” will not issue allowing Ware’s order today to go into effect.

The order comes despite the fact that proponents of Proposition 8 have requested the Supreme Court to review the case because, Judge James Ware wrote today, all requests to stay the judgment in the case have been denied.

[Correction: A stay, or hold, of the case pending the Supreme Court’s decision was granted by the Ninth Circuit, contrary to what was reported in an earlier version of this story.]