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US supreme court petitioned to halt gay marriage as couples rush to tie the knot

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Gay couples line up for ceremonies in California, but opponents of same-sex marriage say court has jumped the gun

Opponents of gay marriage petitioned the US supreme court on Saturday to immediately reinstate a five-year-old ban on same-sex marriage in California, saying a federal appeals court had acted prematurely in removing the prohibition.

Supporters of the gay marriage ban, known as Proposition 8, which California voters approved in 2008, asked the high court to overrule a 9th US circuit court of appeals order on Friday, lifting a stay that had kept same-sex unions outlawed.

Friday's surprise removal of the stay launched a flurry of swiftly arranged weddings by gay and lesbian couples up and down the state following a supreme court decision on Wednesday to let stand a 2010 lower-court opinion striking down Prop 8 as unconstitutional.

But opponents said the three-judge panel of the appeals court had jumped the gun in lifting its injunction before a 25-day "reconsideration" period at the supreme court had elapsed.

The Arizona-based group Alliance Defending Freedom argued that the 9th Circuit lacked authority to act when it did, and that it violated the terms of its own stay requiring that it remain in place "until final disposition by the supreme court".

The alliance asserted that final disposition could not occur before passage of the 25 days the supreme court normally gives petitioners to seek a rehearing, in this case Prop 8 backers who were denied legal standing to appeal against the 2010 decision.

But the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which sponsored the federal court challenge to Prop 8, issued a statement insisting that the 9th Circuit acted under its own "broad discretion" to issue its stay in the first place.

Foundation attorney Ted Boutrous told reporters on a conference call on Friday that the 9th Circuit's move was hardly unprecedented and that appeals courts have taken similar actions in "much more boring cases than this" without drawing much notice.

Prop 8 supporters, he said, "should hang it up and quit trying to stop people from getting married."

The emergency petition seeking to bring gay marriages to a halt came as dozens of same-sex couples lined up at San Francisco City Hall for a second straight day.

Couples in jeans, shorts, white dresses and the occasional military uniform waited as clerks resumed issuing marriage licences.

San Francisco was the only jurisdiction to hold weekend hours so that same-sex couples could take advantage of their newly restored right, clerk Karen Hong said.

A sign posted on the door of the office where a long line of couples waited to fill out applications listed the price for a licence, a ceremony or both, above the words "Equality=Priceless".

"We really wanted to make this happen," Hong said, adding that her whole staff and a group of volunteers came into work without having to be asked. "It's spontaneous, which is great in its own way."

The timing could not have been better for California National Guard Captain Michael Potoczniak, 38, and his partner of 10 years, Todd Saunders, 47.

Potoczniak, who joined the Guard after the military's ban on openly gay service was repealed almost two years ago, was scheduled to fly out on Sunday night for a month of basic training in Texas.

"I woke up this morning, shook him awake and said, 'Let's go'," said Potoczniak, who chose to get married in his army uniform. "It's something that people need to see because everyone is so used to uniforms at military weddings."

On Wednesday the supreme court also overturned the federal law that prevented the government awarding federal benefits to same-sex couples, a decision with extra significance for military couples such as Saunders and Potoczniak.

"It scared me, honestly, before this all happened, that something could happen to me," Potoczniak said. "Things like my body, who would take care of him, even just getting the health insurance ... It gives me a lot more peace of mind to know that the army is taking care of us."

Also waiting to marrry on Saturday were Scott Kehoe, 34, and Aurelien Bricker, 24. After finding out on Facebook that the city was issuing same-sex marriage licences on Friday, the San Francisco couple rushed out to Tiffany's to buy wedding rings.

"We were afraid of further legal challenges in the state," Kehoe said. Bricker is a French citizen living in the United States on a student visa, and the couple has contemplated moving to France once he completes his studies next year.

Now that the Defense of Marriage Act has been struck down and California's gay marriage ban lifted, Kehoe can sponsor his husband for US citizenship or permanent residency.

Hong said 81 same-sex couples married in San Francisco on Friday. The two lead plaintiffs who in 2009 sued to overturn Proposition 8, Kristin Perry and Sandra Stier of Berkeley, were the first, in a hastily arranged ceremony.

Standing amid the beaming couples on Saturday, John Lewis and Stuart Gaffney of the advocacy group Marriage Equality USA looked like proud fathers. The men have been together 26 years, got married in February 2004, had their union invalidated six months later, then became one of the 18,000 couples estimated to have tied the knot in California before Proposition 8 was enacted.

"I don't think getting a licence means as much to anyone who hasn't worked so long for it and fought so hard for it," Gaffney said. "It's been a very long engagement."


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