N.Y. mayor told not to perform gay rites

ALBANY, N.Y. — The mayor of a college town said he would abide by a ruling that temporarily barred him from performing more same-sex marriages, but he was considering his legal options.

The ruling was one of many developments nationwide on the gay marriage issue Friday. In San Francisco, lawyers for the city defended the more than 3,600 gay marriages sanctioned there, and in Oregon a coalition sued to block same-sex marriages in Multnomah County.

In New York, Justice Vincent Bradley issued a temporary restraining order against Jason West, the 26-year-old mayor of New Paltz, at the request of the Florida-based Liberty Counsel, which acted on behalf of a local resident.

"The mayor in substance ignores the oath of office that he took to uphold the law," Bradley said.

West insisted he kept his oath to uphold the constitution.

"But in our system of constitutional government, judges have the last word," West said in a prepared statement. "I intend to fully abide by the judge's decision. And I am considering legal options."

The ruling came as New York Gov. George Pataki said the state is ready to crack down on any official who performs a wedding without a marriage license. West performed his first spate of 25 same-sex marriages a week ago in his village, which is about 75 miles north of New York City and includes the State University at New Paltz.

On Saturday, a New Paltz citizens group planned to go ahead with same-sex nuptials, this time with a Unitarian Universalist minister presiding.

In California, San Francisco's lawyers responded to efforts by the state attorney general and a Christian public interest law firm to invalidate the marriages sanctioned there in the last three weeks.

The California Supreme Court had ordered the city to respond to a pair of petitions asking for a prompt judicial declaration on the legality of the same-sex marriages.

Those seeking to shut down San Francisco's gay wedding spree, Attorney General Bill Lockyer and the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, argue that an existing section of the California Constitution prohibits "administrative agencies" of the state from declaring laws unconstitutional on their own.

City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed briefs arguing that municipal authorities are "independently responsible" to uphold the U.S. Constitution.