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| California gay marriage ban lifted | California gay marriage ban lifted |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A US appeals court has lifted a ban on same-sex marriages in California, following a Supreme Court ruling. | A US appeals court has lifted a ban on same-sex marriages in California, following a Supreme Court ruling. |
| The order was issued by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. | The order was issued by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. |
| Within moments, gay weddings resumed at the city hall - the first such marriages in the state since the voter-approved ban in November 2008. | |
| On Wednesday the US Supreme Court left in place a lower court ruling which had struck down the ban - also known as Proposition 8. | |
| 'Wait is over' | |
| The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals had been expected to wait 25 days before lifting the ban - in case the losing side wanted to ask for the case to be heard again. | |
| But judges at the appeals court decided to act on Friday, saying: "The stay in the above matter is dissolved effective immediately." | |
| Shortly afterwards, one of the two same-sex couples whose case led to the Supreme Court's Wednesday decision got married at San Francisco's town hall. | |
| The wedding of Kris Perry, 48, and Sandy Stier, 50, was officiated by California's Attorney General Kamala Harris. | |
| He declared them "spouse and spouse", but during their vows they took each other as a "lawfully wedded wife", the Associated Press news agency reports. | |
| "They have waited and fought for this moment. Today their wait is finally over," Mr Harris said. | |
| 'No authority' | |
| Proposition 8 was passed by California voters in 2008 - just months after the state's supreme court decided such unions were legal. | |
| Two same-sex couples launched a legal challenge against Proposition 8. As the state of California refused to defend the ban on gay marriage, the group that sponsored Proposition 8 stepped up to do so. | |
| On Wednesday, the US Supreme Court said a private party did not have the right, or "standing", to defend the constitutionality of a law, because it could not demonstrate it would suffer injury if the law were to be struck down and same-sex marriages allowed. | |
| "We have no authority to decide this case on the merits," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the ruling. |