PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman on Friday placed Oregon's domestic partnership law on hold until a hearing in February.

Background: 5/07: Domestic partnership law wins approval

The law scheduled to take effect Jan. 1 would give some spousal rights to same-sex couples.

KGW photo

Lawyers argue the case involving gay marriage before a Marion County judge.

Opponents asked U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman to intercede after the Oregon secretary of state's office ruled in October that they had failed to collect enough valid signatures on a referendum to block the law.

The Oregon measure covers benefits related to inheritance rights, child-rearing and custody, joint state tax filings, joint

health, auto and homeowners insurance policies, visitation rights at hospitals and others. It does not affect federal benefits for married couples, including Social Security and joint filing of federal tax returns.

After the legislature approved the domestic partnership law this year, gay rights opponents launched an effort to collect enough signatures to suspend the law and place it on the November 2008 ballot for a statewide vote.

But state elections officials said this fall that the effort fell 116 valid signatures short of the 55,179 needed to suspend the law.

In court Friday, Austen Nimocks, a lawyer for Alliance Defense Fund, the anti gay rights group, said the state's review process was flawed, disenfranchising citizens who had signed petitions.

The state's largest gay rights group, Basic Rights Oregon, criticized the judge's decision.

"It's unfair our families once again are bearing the brunt of this ongoing struggle," said Jeana Frazzini, a spokesman for the group.

Another Oregon law scheduled to take effect Jan. 1 that outlaws discrimination based on sexual orientation was not challenged in this case and will stand.

Eight other states have approved spousal rights in some form for same-sex couples -- Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Maine, California, Washington and Hawaii. Massachusetts is the only state that allows gay couples to marry.

In 2004, about 3,000 same-sex couples were granted marriage licenses in Multnomah County, the largest county in Oregon, before the Oregon Supreme Court nullified the licenses as unconstitutional the following year.