Proponents of Proposition 8, California's gay marriage ban, chided Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling that struck down the measure in their emergency appeal to block gay marriages.

Walker declared Proposition 8 unconstitutional because it violates the right of gay men and lesbians to equal protection and due process. In a ruling announced Wednesday, Walker put his decision on hold until Thursday, August 18 at 5PM. Gay marriages would resume in California if the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals does not act by that time.

In their emergency appeal to block gay marriages, Protect Marriage, the sponsor of the measure, suggested Walker's ruling was not impartial.

“The district court simply ignored virtually everything – judicial authority, the works of eminent scholars past and present in all relevant academic fields, extensive documentary and historical evidence, and even common sense – opposed to its conclusions,” the filing says.

“Indeed, even though this case implicates quintessential legislative facts … the district court focused almost exclusively on the oral testimony presented at trial.”

“The district court's treatment of the trial testimony, moreover, was likewise egregiously selective and one-sided,” the lawyers said in their 95-page filing.

Proponents also countered that Walker had defamed the people of California when he ruled that Proposition 8 supporters were motivated by their dislike of gay men and lesbians.

The filing pleads the court to stay the ruling before the August 18 deadline to “avoid the confusion and irreparable injury that would flow from the creation of a class of purported same-sex marriages.”

In ruling against a permanent stay, Walker said proponents might not have legal standing to appeal the case because they are not the named defendants in the case. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown, the official defendants representing the state of California, have refused to defend the case and have said they would not appeal.