SAN FRANCISCO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger directed the state attorney general Friday to take immediate action to stop San Francisco's parade of same-sex marriages, hours after a second San Francisco Superior Court judge refused to order a halt to the unions.
In a strongly worded letter to Bill Lockyer, the governor said that because San Francisco's actions "are directly contrary to state law and present an imminent risk to civil order, I hereby direct you to take immediate steps to obtain a definitive judicial resolution of this controversy."
In a speech Friday night at the California Republican Party convention in Burlingame, Schwarzenegger departed from his prepared text to comment on the issue.
"We are seeing in San Francisco that the courts have dropped the ball," he said. "It's time for the city of San Francisco to start respecting state law."
The crowd of 700 Republican activists gave him a standing ovation.
A spokeswoman for Lockyer said late Friday that her office had been in close contact with the governor's staff and planned to seek a judgment in the court case soon declaring San Francisco's actions in violation of state law. But she stressed that the city's experiment posed no risk to public safety and noted that the governor had no authority over the independently elected Lockyer.
"The governor cannot direct the attorney general," said Hallye Jordan. "He can direct the Highway Patrol. He can direct 'Terminator 4.' But he can't tell the attorney general what to do. However, we are his lawyer, and we are moving as expeditiously -- with deliberation -- as possible."
Lockyer was reluctantly pulled into the San Francisco controversy Thursday, when city officials sued the state alleging that state law defining marriage as between "a man and a woman" violated the California Constitution by discriminating against gays and lesbians. That action became part of the broader legal challenge to the city now wending through the courts.
By day's end Friday, more than 6,300 people had been married in same-sex civil ceremonies performed at San Francisco City Hall over the last week. Mayor Gavin Newsom, who cleared the way for the marriages, performed one himself Friday for a state official.
The ruling by Superior Court Judge Ronald Evans Quidachay allows the city to continue the marriages until the case is heard on its merits next month.
