[calcowgirl]

By David Kravets and Lisa Leff
ASSOCIATED PRESS
5:22 p.m. February 17, 2004

SAN FRANCISCO – A judge said Tuesday that San Francisco appears to be violating the law by issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, but he declined to order an immediate halt to the weddings.

A conservative group had asked Judge James Warren to immediately stop the wedding spree and void the 2,400 same-sex marriages performed in the city since Thursday, but instead he issued a non-binding cease-and-desist order and told the city to return on March 29 and explain its legal position.

"We are extremely happy and gratified that a stay was not issued," City Attorney Dennis Herrerra said.

It wasn't immediately clear whether Mayor Gavin Newsom would abide by the non-binding court order, or tell city officials to continue issuing the marriage licenses.

Earlier Tuesday, another judge told another conservative group to return on Friday for another hearing on their challenge of the city's marriage policy.

[heleny]

It wasn't immediately clear whether Mayor Gavin Newsom would abide by the non-binding court order, or tell city officials to continue issuing the marriage licenses.

Like, Duh. Since Newsom initially told the clerk to issue the marriage licenses, there's obviously no reason he would tell them to stop now.

One thing I'm not too clear on is that I heard in the news that SF planned to perform 30-40 marriages today. But, how many marriage licenses did they issue? Such licenses are usually good for 90 days.