State Attorney General Jerry Brown and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger just filed papers asking Judge Walker to immediately enforce his decision declaring Proposition 8 unconstitutional and to allow equal marriages to resume in California right away. 

Before Judge Walker even issued his decision declaring Prop 8 unconstitutional, the anti-equality backers of Prop 8 filed a motion with the Court asking it to hold off on enforcing (or “to stay”) its decision pending the appeal.  In other words, they want to continue denying equality during the years that it will take for Judge Walker's decision to be affirmed by the Supreme Court.  Judge Walker ordered that the Plaintiffs file their opposition to this motion today, and agreed to stay enforcement of his decision at least until he rules on this pending motion.

That both the Democratic Attorney General and the Republican Governor think that marriages should resume now shows that there is broad agreement that equality cannot wait for years of appeals.  Sure, there are crazy outliers who think that we should continue to discriminate against same sex couples, but these two filings show that those people are far outside the mainstream of legal thought.   

Here's a full copy of Jerry Brown's filing.

The jist of Jerry Brown's argument is:

Defendant-Intervenors’ argument that the Attorney General’s opposition to Plaintiffs’ initial request for a preliminary injunction supports their request for a stay pending appeal ignores the fact that there has now been a trial on the merits that conclusively demonstrated that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional. In opposing the request for a preliminary injunction, the Attorney General argued that “the parties, the Court, and, indeed, the general public would benefit” from having the constitutionality of Proposition 8 “decided on the merits following full briefing and argument by the parties.” That has now occurred. And while there is still the potential for limited administrative burdens should future marriages of same-sex couples be later declared invalid, these potential burdens are outweighed by this Court’s conclusion, based on the overwhelming evidence, that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional. Accordingly, the harm to the plaintiffs outweighs any harm to the state defendants.

And here is a full copy of Arnold Schwarzenegger's filing.

Schwarzenegger's agrument is similar to Brown's.  In essence, he argues that denying the stay and allowing marriages to resume will further the public interest by promoting equality for all:

[I]mplementing the Court’s order now, without further delay, serves the public interest. . . . California has long been committed to eliminating discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and respecting the familial rights of same-sex couples. . . . The Court’s decision here is consistent with California’s long history of leading the way in recognizing the rights of gay and lesbian families to order their relationships and manage their day-to-day lives. For that reason, California’s public interest is served by giving the Court’s judgment effect now.

The Plaintiffs (represented by Boies and Olson) have not yet filed their opposition to the Motion to Stay, but it will be filed wihin the next few hours.

UPDATE: Plaintiffs just filed their opposition to the Motion to Stay.