California's top two officials, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown, on Friday urged a federal judge to allow same-sex marriages to resume immediately, opposing backers of the state's gay marriage ban who want to block the nuptials until the legal challenge to the law is resolved in the appeals courts.

In court papers, the Republican governor and Democratic attorney general argued that Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker already established this week that gay and lesbian couples should have the legal right to marry in California.

In an unprecedented ruling Wednesday, Walker struck down voter-approved Proposition 8, concluding that it violated the constitutional rights of same-sex couples. The decision came in the first federal court test in the nation of a state's ban on gay marriage. The judge gave both sides in the case until Friday to make arguments on whether he should immediately block enforcement of Proposition 8, which would allow gay and lesbian couples to seek marriage licenses around the state.

However, Proposition 8 supporters have already appealed Walker's decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Even if Walker refuses to stay his ruling, most legal experts expect the appeals court to intervene and put the case on hold while the appeal proceeds. That would preserve the status quo and prevent same-sex couples from marrying, a situation that could remain in place for some time given the

likelihood that the case may ultimately have to be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Schwarzenegger, who has thus far remained neutral in the case, argued that Walker should allow the marriages to take place now.

"The administration believes the public interest is best served by permitting the court's judgment to go into effect, thereby restoring the right of same-sex couples to marry in California," the governor's lawyers wrote. "Doing so is consistent with California's long history of treating all people and their relationships with equal dignity and respect."

Both the governor and Brown noted that about 18,000 same-sex couples are legally married in the state, having secured marriage licenses before Proposition 8 went into effect in November 2008, and there has not been "any resulting harm."

Lawyers for the two same-sex couples who sued to overturn Proposition 8 seized on the governor's position, saying same-sex couples will "continue to suffer irreparable harm if Proposition 8's irrational deprivation of their constitutional rights is prolonged."

In seeking to block enforcement of the same-sex-marriage ban, state lawyers and the plaintiffs insist that Proposition 8 defenders have little chance of winning on appeal, one key threshold in deciding whether to issue a stay. Proposition 8 lawyers, however, have already filed court papers saying they believe they will get Walker's ruling overturned.

Lawyers defending Proposition 8 have asked Walker to stay his ruling, even before he issued it on Wednesday, warning that it would cause chaos if same-sex marriages were allowed to take place while the case goes through the appeals process.