SAN FRANCISCO – A federal appeals court on Tuesday declared California's same-sex marriage ban to be unconstitutional, putting the bitterly contested, voter-approved law on track for likely consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that a lower court judge correctly interpreted the U.S. Constitution and Supreme Court precedents when he declared in 2010 that Proposition 8 was a violation of the civil rights of gays and lesbians.

It was unclear when gay marriages might resume in California. Lawyers for Proposition 8 sponsors and for the two couples who successfully sued to overturn the ban have repeatedly said they would consider appealing to a larger panel of the court and then the U.S. Supreme Court if they did not receive a favorable ruling from the 9th Circuit.

California's marriage battle will land back in court September 6, and one pro-family activist says the state's unstable courts make the ultimate decision difficult to predict.

The California Supreme Court has scheduled a 10:00 a.m. hearing on Proposition 8, the 2008 law that upholds traditional marriage in the state. The high court will consider whether initiative proponents have the legal right to defend their measures in court when state officials refuse to do so. Justices have 90 days after the hearing to decide on the issue.

Jerry Cox, president of the Arkansas Family Council, is not confident the end result will favor conservatives...

A pro-family leader in California is calling for some federal judges to be fired for not upholding their oath of office. The comment comes after the country's largest bankruptcy court ruled the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional.

In a written ruling, Judge Thomas B. Donovan of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California, along with 20 other judges, called DOMA unconstitutional. The ruling stemmed from a case where a homosexual couple in the state, who "married" legally in 2008, filed for bankruptcy protection; and because of DOMA, bankruptcy officials sought to dismiss the case.

Randy Thomasson, president of SaveCalifornia.com, says the ruling is another attack against traditional marriage...

SAN FRANCISCO - Rumors swirled that the federal judge who had struck down California's same-sex "marriage" ban last summer was homosexual, but the lawyers charged with defending the measure remained silent on the subject. Their preferred strategy for getting the ruling overturned on appeal was to focus on the law, not a judge's personal life, they said.

Eight months later, Proposition 8's proponents and their attorneys have taken a new position. They filed a motion Monday seeking to vacate Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker's historic ruling, a move they said was prompted by the now-retired jurist's recent disclosure that he is in a long-term relationship with another man.

Lawyers for the ban's backers argue that the judge's relationship status, not his sexual orientation, gave him too much in common with the couples who successfully sued to overturn the ban in his court.

SAN FRANCISCO -- California's highest court decided Wednesday to wade back into the legal morass surrounding the state's voter-approved gay marriage ban, agreeing to rule on a question of state law considered crucial to the survival of Proposition 8.

The California Supreme Court accepted without comment a formal inquiry from a federal appeals court that's mulling the constitutionality of the 2008 ban that was struck down in August as a violation of gay Californians' civil rights.

The three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said last month it can't reach a decision until it knows if ballot proposition sponsors have legal standing to step in when the attorney general and governor refuse to defend voter-approved initiatives in court...

Attorneys have filed briefs before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a federal judge's ruling on August 4 that deemed California's marriage amendment unconstitutional.

Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorney Jim Campbell tells OneNewsNow the Proposition 8 case has the potential to impact marriage and the use of the democratic process nationwide.

"What the lower court said here in essence is that it violates the United States Constitution to define marriage and to preserve marriage as the union between a man and a woman," Campbell explains. "So if that decision were to be upheld, it could have ramifications throughout the entire country"...

A conservative legal defense organization took action to force the California governor and attorney general to back Proposition 8, but an appellate court dismissed the case -- a decision that will be appealed.

Pacific Justice Institute (PJI) president Brad Dacus reports that Attorney General Jerry Brown has so far refused to participate in an appeal of Judge Vaughn Walker's decision that struck down Proposition 8, the state constitutional amendment protecting traditional marriage. It was a legal decision that effectively legalized homosexual "marriage" in The Golden State. But PJI is doing all it can to convince Brown he needs to defend state law...

A California group isn't surprised a three-judge panel of the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco decided to stay the ruling by Judge Vaughn Walker, striking down Proposition 8.

The Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), a non-profit legal organization specializing in cases involving religious liberties, firmly supports Proposition 8. Attorney Brad Dacus, president of the Institute, does not think the lower court judge is capable of ruling impartially.

"He is openly engaging in homosexuality. That is his lifestyle; that is who he is; that's his identity," Dacus notes. "So he had his own identity, his own lifestyle on trial before him, and I think it would be very difficult for someone like him to rule differently. To rule differently, in a way, would be to rule against himself"...

San Francisco (AP) - Gay couples who had been gearing up to get married in California this week had to put their wedding plans on hold once again after a federal appeals court said it first wanted to consider the constitutionality of the state's same-sex marriage ban.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals imposed an emergency stay Monday on a trial court judge's ruling overturning the ban, known as Proposition 8. Chief U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker had ordered state officials to stop enforcing the measure starting Wednesday, clearing the way for county clerks to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

"It's saddening just to know that we still have to keep waiting for this basic human right," Marcia Davalos, of Los Angeles, a health care advocate who had planned to marry her partner, Laurette Healey, said when the stay was issued Monday. "We were getting excited and then all of a sudden it's like, 'Ugh.' It's a roller-coaster"...

(CNSNews.com) – Religious leaders warn that if an Aug. 6 ruling by a federal judge on same-sex marriage is upheld, it could wind up putting a gag on Christians speaking out about homosexuality – a gag that a top Southern Baptist leader says his denomination will not accept.

In a 136-page decision barring California’s Proposition 8, which limited marriage to one man and one woman, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker found that “Religious beliefs that gay and lesbian relationships are sinful or inferior to heterosexual relationships harm gays and lesbians.”

Mathew Staver, dean of the Liberty University Law School and chairman of the Orlando-based Liberty Counsel, said Walker's finding is shocking, and, if upheld, would have ominous implications for Christians wanting to present the Bible’s position on homosexuality...