SAN FRANCISCO, June 5 (Reuters) - The 9th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals cleared the way on Tuesday for the U.S. Supreme Court
to consider California's gay marriage ban, declining an appeal
to revisit the case.
Supporters of the 2008 ban, Proposition 8, have lost two
rounds in federal court but have made clear they will appeal to
the U.S. Supreme Court and hope for a favorable response from
the conservative-leaning court.
The top U.S. court could agree to hear the matter in the
session beginning in October, putting it on track to decide the
case within a year.
"We're not [at the] end of the line yet, but we are vastly
closer," said Theodore Olson, an attorney for the two gay
couples challenging the ban.
An attorney for the ban supporters said that his team was
preparing for the next round. "We will promptly file our appeal
to the nation's highest court and look forward to a positive
outcome on behalf of the millions of Californians who believe in
traditional marriage," Andrew Pugno said in a statement.
The Supreme Court could also take on a recent decision by
Boston's 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that
part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act was
unconstitutional, and hear the two alongside each other, said
Thomas Goldstein, a Washington D.C.-based attorney who practices
before the top court.
"The timing is too perfect," Goldstein said, adding that the
oral argument would resemble this year's proceedings on legal
challenges to President Barack Obama's health care plan.
President Obama last month turned gay marriage into a 2012
campaign issue, saying he believed same-sex couples should be
able to marry. Republican Mitt Romney disagrees.
The vast majority of U.S. states limit marriage to
opposite-sex couples, and popular votes have consistently
approved bans on widening those rights.
But polls show growing acceptance of same-sex nuptials,
which have been legalized in eight states and the District of
Columbia, thanks to votes by legislators and court decisions.
The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston last week ruled
that the federal Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutionally
denied benefits to same-sex couples in a state where gay
marriage was legal.
But appeals courts have so far declined to rule broadly on
whether marriage is a fundamental human right for same-sex
couples as well as heterosexuals.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
ruled in February that California's Prop 8 ban discriminated
against gays and lesbians. It rejected the key argument by ban
supporters that Proposition 8 furthered "responsible
procreation."
Ban proponents appealed the ruling to the full 9th Circuit,
which could hear it with a larger panel of judges. The court on
Tuesday said it would not do so. It also kept the decision
ending the ban on hold for 90 days, to allow for an appeal to
the U.S. Supreme Court.
California is the most populous U.S. state and the home of
Hollywood and hippies, but it has a socially conservative side
as well. That leaning was clear in the 2008 ballot that enacted
Prop 8 by 52.24 percent to 47.76 percent, or some 600,000 votes,
ending a summer of legal same-sex marriage.
A federal judge struck down Proposition 8 in 2010, although
existing same-sex marriages are on hold pending appeals.
(Reporting by Peter Henderson and Dan Levine)
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