The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, located in San Francisco, California, today ruled not to hear an en banc appeal of it’s previous three judge ruling, that upheld the ruling of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, finding Proposition 8 unconstitutional.
By a two to one vote, the panel denied the request for a hearing before a panel of eleven of the court’s twenty nine judgeships.
The court also stayed it’s ruling for ninety days, to allow time for the case to be appealed to the Supreme Court. Should that court unexpectedly refuse to hear the case, Proposition 8 would finally be dead, and same-gender marriages could resume in California. Most observers, however, expect the Supreme Court to accept the appeal, and hear the case.
The American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) filed the original case against Proposition 8, and you can read their notice here.
