THE LACK OF STANDING TO APPEAL THE OVERTURNING OF PROP. 8

UPDATE, 8/18/2010

Enter tiny Imperial County, the state's poorest, where voters overwhelmingly supported Proposition 8 and where officials say they will be harmed if same-sex marriages resume. Because the county issues marriage licenses, county officials say, it has standing other Proposition 8 proponents might lack.

The county tried unsuccessfully to intervene in district court, but is still trying. It is joining Proposition 8's main proponents in appealing Walker's ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

UPDATE, 8/17/2010.

Gay couples who had been gearing up to get married in California this week had to put their wedding plans on hold once again after a federal appeals court said it first wanted to consider the constitutionality of the state's same-sex marriage ban.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals imposed an emergency stay Monday on a trial court judge's ruling overturning the ban, known as Proposition 8. Chief U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker had ordered state officials to stop enforcing the measure starting Wednesday, clearing the way for county clerks to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

ALSO SEE Here.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a very heartening article entitled, Who has standing to appeal Prop. 8 ruling?

Please read this article in its entirety, but part of it reads as follows:

Ironically, it is a legal doctrine fashioned by conservatives that may provide a decisive victory to the supporters of marriage equality for gays and lesbians and end the litigation over California's Proposition 8.

For decades, conservative justices on the Supreme Court have ruled to limit who has standing to bring a claim in federal court. In cases involving civil rights, environmental protection and the separation of church and state, the court has ordered that cases be dismissed because the party pursuing the case had no legal standing to do so....

The result of all this is likely to be that gays and lesbians will be able to marry beginning Wednesday, when Walker's temporary stay expires. There then will be consideration of the case, over the next couple of years, by the 9th Circuit and ultimately by the Supreme Court.

But if those courts follow well-established law, they will need to dismiss the appeal on grounds that those who filed it have no standing. The outcome, then, will be that marriage equality will exist in California, at least unless and until in some other case, some day, the Supreme Court comes to a different conclusion.

If the higher courts adhere to established practices, based on conservative and long-held principles, the appeal of Judge Walker's decision may well not even be accepted by those courts, let alone sustained by those courts should those courts agree to hear the appeal of his decision.

Moreover, by the time that the appeal reaches the U.S. Supreme Court, same-sex marriage will be firmly established in California, and it then becomes very unlikely that that court will invalidate the many same-sex marriages that will occur in the interim.

Share |