The California supreme court on Thursday ordered an immediate halt to gay marriages, a month after the issue sparked a debate in the United States.
The seven-justice court also directed San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and other city officials to enforce the current marriage laws without regard to their own personal views about the constitutionality of those laws.
In a pair of unanimous orders, the court granted requests by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer and by groups opposing same-sex marriage to bypass lower courts and review the issue itself.
The court said it would hear arguments only on whether Newsom and the city clerk are bound by a state constitutional provision requiring administrative agencies to follow a state law until an appellate court rules the law unconstitutional.
The court said it would hold a hearing in late May or early June and rule within 90 days of the hearing.
The decision put an end to ceremonies that had brought thousands of jubilant gay couples to City Hall in the last month.
It emboldened local officials in remote cities and towns across the country to challenge their states' marriage laws, and sparked a political furor that has become an issue in the presidential race, a local daily said.
Newsom said he was undaunted. "I look forward now, more resolved than ever, of making a strong case in front of the state supreme court, making the case that we have an obligation under the equal protection clause of the constitution to do what's right -- treat people fairly, with dignity on an equal basis regardless of sexual orientation."
The court's decree does not affect the more than 4,000 same-sex weddings already performed in San Francisco. But those weddings will have no legal status if the court rules Newsom lacked authority to defy the state law -- a probability, legal analysts say, given Thursday's orders.
"It seems to me, at a minimum, that the court has serious doubts about the mayor's claim that he has freedom to act on his own constitutional conscience," Vikram Amar, a professor of constitutional law at UC's Hastings College of Law told the San Francisco Chronicle.
The court's action delighted opponents of same-sex marriage. "This means that the rule of law is restored in California without regard to the views of the mayor and the county clerk," said Glen Lavy, a lawyer with the Alliance Defence Fund, which sued to overturn the marriages.
