The desperation of the wingnuts to stop the launch of legal same-sex marriage in California next week is now laughable at this point.

Today Liberty Counsel is filing a petition requesting the California Court of Appeal to stay the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

On June 16, the Court of Appeal will regain jurisdiction over the same-sex marriage cases after the state Supreme Court’s May 15th ruling becomes final. In that ruling, the California Supreme Court directed the Court of Appeal to take “further action consistent with this opinion.”

The Supreme Court did not and cannot remove language from the state statutes, because it is not a legislature. In fact, the Supreme Court’s decision addressed only two statutes relating to marriage. There are many more relevant statutes that were not addressed. The power to write laws belongs to the people and legislative branch of government, not the judiciary.

Since neither the Supreme Court nor the Court of Appeal has addressed the myriad of other statutes regarding marriage, local government officials do not have the power to issue marriage licenses until the legislature addresses these statutes.

Liberty Counsel’s petition asks the Court of Appeal to order that no marriage licenses be issued to same-sex couples until the language cited by the Supreme Court is stricken by the legislature and until there is a judicial determination that the other current marriage statutes are unconstitutional. The petition also argues that same-sex marriage licenses should not be issued until after the November 2008 general election, in order to preserve the people’s right to vote on the California Marriage Protection Act.

This case is far from over. We will not give up. The people will have the final say on marriage.