Two judges refused Tuesday to put an immediate halt to the parade of same-sex weddings at San Francisco City Hall, ensuring that gay and lesbian couples will be able to wed until at least the end of the week.

Superior Court Judge James Warren turned down a conservative group's request to issue a stay that immediately would have barred city officials from issuing same-sex marriage licenses. Instead, after a 21/2-hour hearing in a packed courtroom, Warren gave city officials a choice: Stop issuing the licenses now or return to court March 29 to explain why they should allow gay and lesbian marriages.

Jillian Armenante (left), an actress on the TV series "Judging Amy," was in City Hall to marry Alice Dodd. They drove from Los Angeles. Chronicle photo by Deanne Fitzmaurice

Earlier Tuesday, another group of opponents of same-sex marriages failed to persuade Superior Court Judge Ronald Quidachay to stop officials from issuing the licenses and to invalidate the 2,636 that the city has handed out since Thursday. Quidachay set the next hearing on that lawsuit for Friday.

Ninety minutes after Warren ruled, Mayor Gavin Newsom announced that the city will continue to issue marriage licenses today and every day that City Hall is open until the courts say stop.

"I'm not sitting here breaking open the champagne bottles,'' Newsom said after a legal briefing from City Attorney Dennis Herrera. "Quite the contrary. But I do recognize that the path we're on is inevitable. We want to march down that path until we are forced to stop that march.''

The historic legal drama reached the state capital, where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued a statement opposing San Francisco's same-sex weddings.

"I support all of California's existing laws that provide domestic partnership benefits and protections,'' Schwarzenegger said. However, he said, "Californians spoke on the issue of same-sex-marriage'' when voters approved of Proposition 22, the 2000 initiative that defines marriage as between a man and a woman. "I support that law and encourage San Francisco officials to obey that law,'' he said.

Attorneys for the group that went before Warren to seek a stay, the Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund, said they would appeal his decision if the gay and lesbian marriages proceed. Attorney Robert Tyler said the plaintiffs otherwise interpreted Warren's ruling as a victory, saying that, in their view, the judge "did make a determination that there was a violation of the law."

Lawyers for the city disagreed with that interpretation, maintaining that the judge never got to the question of whether the city was acting legally.

"We are extremely happy and gratified that a stay (was not issued)," Herrera said. "We happen to believe that everything that was done was legal."

Joseph Grodin, who teaches constitutional law at the University of California's Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, cautioned against reading too much into Warren's "cease and desist" order to the city.

"It's a neutral order,'' said the former California Supreme Court justice. "Courts issue these orders all the time, setting the case for a hearing.''

The opponents of gay marriages have argued that Newsom is violating state laws that define marriage as between a man and woman. City officials have responded that Newsom is acting under the state constitution, which guarantees equal protection for all Californians.

It appears now that the earliest opportunity for the same-sex marriage opponents to argue their case will be Friday, when Judge Quidachay will hear pleas from lawyers for the Campaign for California Families.

On Tuesday, Quidachay ruled that the group had not given city officials adequate notice of a hearing after it filed its suit Friday. "The court itself is not prepared to hear the matter,'' the judge said.

Lawyers for the Sacramento group immediately appealed Quidachay's ruling.

As the lawyers argued in the courthouse on McAllister Street, the joyous mood continued across the street at City Hall. Another 172 same-sex couples were married Tuesday amid reporters, activists, well-wishers and the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus, which gave a concert on the City Hall steps.

Frank Capley, 29, and Joe Alfano, 33, hug after their wedding in City Hall, where knot-tying continued during Tuesday's court hearings. Chronicle photo by Deanne Fitzmaurice

The line to get a marriage license has at times stretched through two floors of City Hall, out the front door and around three sides of the stately stone building. Gays and lesbians have come from around California and 22 other states, including Texas, Hawaii, Alaska and Florida.

Those who traveled the farthest came from the Netherlands, Thailand and Switzerland. However, 96 percent of the newlyweds have been from California.

Dawn Cawrse and Carrie Draper, who have been together almost seven years, came from Elk Grove, south of Sacramento. They piled their two daughters, ages 9 years and 6 months, into the car at 1:30 a.m. to be one of the first couples in line Tuesday morning after they were turned away Sunday.

They arrived in San Francisco at 3:30 a.m. and reached the front of the line to get their license around 10 a.m. It was worth the wait, they said.

"We knew that this eventually would happen; we just didn't know how soon, '' said Cawrse, a 35-year-old air traffic controller.

City officials planned to marry only 50 same-sex couples Tuesday after the weekend crush, but at noon, as the line moved more quickly than expected, they gave the green light to more than 100 additional couples. Throughout the day, hundreds of people waited outside City Hall in the intermittent rain, hoping there would be time for even more weddings -- and that a court wouldn't order them halted.

Assessor-Recorder Mabel Teng said officials hoped to issue at least 150 marriage licenses to same-sex couples today on a first come, first served basis. The clerk's office issues licenses from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Tuesday, the city resumed charging the regular $62 fee to perform each wedding ceremony. That fee had been waived in the first five days of the gay and lesbian nuptials, with most of the ceremonies officiated by deputized volunteers.

The license fee costs an additional $82 and copies of the license cost $13 each.

Melinda McCallister, 25, and Jennifer Kemmet, 23, drove Tuesday from Los Angeles. As they got to the door of the clerk's office at 4 p.m., they were told that they'd have to come back today because the office was closing for the day; the couple before them was to be the last one to get in.

They sat down and cried. The door reopened and a worker yelled, "Hey L.A.! '' and let them in.

They emerged from City Hall an hour later with a marriage certificate in hand.

©2004 San Francisco Chronicle

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