Judge sets Jan 2010 federal gay marriage trial

Gay couple Ethan Collings (L), 32, and his spouse Stephen Abate, 36, hug as they celebrate their one-year wedding anniversary in West Hollywood, California, June 16, 2009.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A federal court case which could legalize gay marriage in the United States will begin trial in January 2010 with high-profile lawyers but not longtime gay and conservative antagonists lined up on opposite sides of the debate, a district judge ruled on Wednesday.

Aiming to speed a contentious case that could be destined for the U.S. Supreme Court, San Francisco District Court Judge Vaughn Walker denied requests to join the case from gay advocacy groups and social conservatives who said they would not be adequately represented.

Ted Olson, the conservative lawyer whose Supreme Court arguments put President George W. Bush in the White House, and David Boies, his opponent in the 2000 case, joined forces to overturn California's Proposition 8 gay marriage ban and the Wednesday hearing left them in firm control.

"The lawyers will multiply like locusts!" David Thompson, whose firm Cooper and Kirk is defending the ban, warned in a courtroom already filled with about 30 attorneys.

"At bottom, they tender nothing new to this case," except experience, Olson told the court.

Six U.S. states, mostly in the northeast, have allowed same-sex marriage, but 40 forbid it. Californians voted their ban in place last November, ending court-approved legality and sparking national protests.

WHERE'S SCHWARZENEGGER?

Gay advocates had planned to continue a state-by-state battle for legitimacy and avoid the conservative Supreme Court, but the two political odd-couple star lawyers, outsiders to the cause, launched the federal case and then argued the gay groups should be sidelined in order to speed it to trial.

Lambda Legal lawyers and other gay advocates said afterward they would continue to help Olson and Boies.

But the lawyer for the conservative Campaign for California Families left the courtroom quickly; she had argued that lawyers defending the ban were giving away too much, such as by agreeing that same-sex orientation did not impair judgment.

Judge Walker, clearly eager to focus and speed arguments, did allow the city and county of San Francisco to join the case as a government representative. Calif. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signaled his administration will not actively join the case.

"I am surprised by the governor's position in this case," Walker told a state lawyer, telling him to urge Schwarzenegger, who personally favors gay marriage, to get involved. "This is a matter of some importance to the people."

Walker set a January 11, 2010 date to start the trial, an aggressive schedule.

Two same-sex couples represented by Olson and Boies say marriage is a federal constitutional right which they are being denied. They are expected to argue that gays and lesbians are routinely discriminated against and deserve a special level of protection, such as that afforded racial and disabled groups.

The Supreme Court's rulings that marriage is a fundamental right do not exclude gays and lesbians, they say.

Social conservatives led by lawyer Charles Cooper say the people of California had the right to limit marriage to a man and a woman, since it is in the state's interest to limit marriage to couples of opposite sex.

They say gays and lesbians do not deserve a special class of protection, which is afforded to very few groups, and that so long as the state has a legitimate cause it can ban gay marriage. One major reason, they say, is that limiting marriage to same-sex couples promotes "responsible" procreation.

(Editing Todd Eastham)