[JURIST] Attorneys representing Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and Protect Marriage [advocacy websites] on Friday filed a petition [text, PDF] asking the Supreme Court of California [official website] to halt same-sex marriages. In the petition, the attorneys argued that U.S. Supreme Court’s Hollingsworth v. Perry [SCOTUSblog backgrounder] did not rule directly on the constitutionality of Proposition 8 [text, PDF; JURIST news archive], California’s same-sex marriage ban. ADF further claimed that the state registrar under the authority of Governor Jerry Brown [official website] lack the authority to order county clerks to issue same sex marriage licenses. “Any county that defies the federal court’s injunction is at risk not only of contempt of court but also a lawsuit”, said Theodore Olson [San Francisco Chronicle], a lawyer for the same-sex couples who challenged Proposition 8 in federal court.

Since last month when the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] announced [JURIST report] that the ban on same-sex marriage be “dissolved effectively immediately,” ADF has advocated the ban on same-sex marriage continue. Last month, ADF filed an emergency petition [JURIST report] stating the decision to lift California’s ban on gay marriage was not legal and was decided prematurely. The Supreme Court, however, rejected this request [JURIST report] to block to the issuance of same-sex marriage licenses.