California Supreme Court will rule on question from 9th Circuit regarding standing

by Brian Leubitz

A quick public service announcement here. A ruling from the California Supreme Court is due tomorrow on the question of standing for the Prop 8 proponents:

The California Supreme Court will decide Thursday whether to allow supporters of Proposition 8 to defend California’s ban on same-sex marriage.

Based on the tenor of the justices’ questions during arguments in September, it appeared likely the Supreme Court would permit Proposition 8’s legal team to defend the voter-approved law, which would push the ongoing legal battle forward in a federal appeals court.

The Supreme Court is addressing the narrow question of whether Proposition 8 sponsors have a right to appeal a federal judge’s ruling declaring the law unconstitutional when the governor and attorney general refuse to do so. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals asked the state’s high court to rule on that issue before addressing the central questions in the legal challenge to the same-sex marriage ban. (SJ Merc)

As a reminder, this question has nothing whatsoever to do with the merits of the case.  And while I’m not that big of a fan of reading the tea leaves, the fact remains that the Court did seem sympathetic to the Proponent’s standing claim.  And while a denial of standing would seemingly end the case and allow Californians to marry, as Chad Griffin of AFER points out, we really can win either way.

Here’s the great news: No matter what happens, we win. Either the Federal District Court ruling that declared Prop. 8 unconstitutional stands, or our case proceeds on its merits with the strong likelihood of reaching the U.S. Supreme Court. Because there is no reason to justify discrimination against gay and lesbian Americans, we are confident that the higher courts will affirm our District Court victory.

So, I guess we’ll just wait a few more hours, or a few more months, or a few more years, but time is on our side.  The clock is ticking towards full marriage equality.