The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday denied an attempt by an anti-gay marriage group to issue an emergency stay of U.S. District Judge Michael McShane's pending decision regarding Oregon's ban on same-sex marriage.

McShane last week denied NOM's attempt to intervene and has said he will issue a ruling at noon Monday on the lawsuit challenging Oregon's constitutional provision limiting marriage to one man and one woman.

McShane ruled that NOM could not simply replace Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum in court as a defender of Oregon's prohibition against same-sex marriage. Rosenblum has declined to defend the law, saying that it violates the federal equal protection rights of gay and lesbian couples. Like the plaintiffs in the case, Rosenblum has urged the judge to allow same-sex couples to marry.

The plaintiffs on Monday filed a response to the NOM motion urging the 9th Circuit not to issue a stay. The plaintiffs, which include four gay and lesbian couples seeking the right to marry, said that it is "extraordinarily unlikely" that NOM's intervention in the case would change McShane's decision.

Rosenblum also argued that the 9th Circuit should not intervene.

"As the district court found, it is the province of the Attorney General, who answers to the electorate of Oregon, and not NOM, which does not, to determine what legal position to take in response to a challenge to state law," Rosenblum's office said in a legal brief.

-- Jeff Mapes