[CobaltBlue]

All he had to do was strike out the semi-colon with his pen, interlineate the word "or", hand it to the attorneys to initial, and enter the order.

At least, that's all he'd have to do in Virginia.

If hand written interlineations are a violation of California law, if I had been one of the lawyers, I would have called my secretary on a cell phone and instructed her to retype that one page and fax it to judge's chambers ASAP. Total turn-around time, 15 minutes, max. A secretary on her toes could do it in 5 minutes.

[GOPrincess]

Yes, I don't get this. I was a legal secretary in CA for 10 years and there were times attorneys would draft a handwritten stipulation in court and have it signed! If they were arguing about that semicolon all day, there's no reason on earth a new one couldn't have been printed and messengered to the courthouse, if the judge refused to strike it out himself (which I believe he could do...).

[Future Snake Eater]

All he had to do was strike out the semi-colon with his pen, interlineate the word "or", hand it to the attorneys to initial, and enter the order.

Hell, he wouldn't even have to do that. A semicolon replaces a comma and a coordinating conjuction (and, but, or, nor, for), so, therefore, "or" is already in there, just in a different, totally legitimate fashion. This judge is just helping the Cause O' The Queers.

[Don Joe]

What we have here is the American equivalent to the Saudi "Religious Police" who locked some schoolgirls into a burning building, where they burned to death, because they could not be allowed to exit without the proper headgear.

I believe the biblical terminology is, "straining at gnats while swallowing a camel," and frankly I can't think of a better analogy.

[Iron Eagle]

Indeed, I have seen it done many times in Va from the chair of a judge's law clerk, and I have done it many a times as a practicing lawyer. (Particularly in some jurisdictions in Va where the parties many not leave, until an order has been presented.)

Many states don't even require lawyers to draft the order. Even in the rocket docket, the Court will draft the order itself, and I have seen state judges do it too.

This was nothing more than an excuse by the Court to delay issuing the stay, probably to permit as many people as possible to get "married."

This is just bizarre