[Equality/Politics] Prop 8 Supporters May Not be Able to Appeal

[kobold]

Ooooooops!

Oh no! It means people may have to stop worrying about what OTHER consenting adults are doing behind closed doors.

Probably should have put up an actual defense instead of, "We can't prove it, but it'll hurt the children."

Comments

[shmuel]

I am not a lawyer, but on the face of it, Vikram Amar's argument toward the end of that article seems hard to avoid: if the defendants don't have the standing to appeal, they shouldn't have had the standing to bring the case at all... which would seem to throw the whole trial into question.

(I admit I can already feel the schadenfreude welling up at the prospect of this collapsing specifically because the judge got too cute and overplayed his hand. But again, not a lawyer.)

[xanath]

The judge allowed various homophobe organizations to defend the case essentially amicus curiae, as interested third parties. They were able to file briefs and present witnesses, but since they are not direct parties to the case they might not have the standing to appeal.

::grins::

See icon.

[lizetta]

Another amusing point on this is, according to my lawyer bf (so not my first hand knowledge), conservatives are the reason that standing has taken such a narrow definition. They fought for years to reduce the number of lawsuits, and now that may come back to bite them in the arse.

I admit they I'm of the opinion that this case is strong enough to win at the Supreme Court, but I know there will be others.

[blackbyrd2]

I am no expert, nor lawyer, nor even extremely well-versed in this particular issue, but my understanding is this;
If the trial is vacated, then the vote to repeal P-8 stands, and gay marriage proceeds. Good for gays.
If the proponents don't have the right to appeal, it doesn't go to the 9th, and thence to the supreme court, eventually, creating a national precedent/decision and overturning DOMA. Bad for gays.
Brown and Ah-nuld could choose to defend the law at that point, maybe? Bad for gays. But they're unlikely to, based on their current apparent positions. Good for gays. But new AG and/or Governator could be persuaded to. Bad for gays.

But for now, most likely gay marriage proceeds, so good for gays!

[shmuel]

If the proponents don't have the right to appeal, it doesn't go to the 9th, and thence to the supreme court, eventually, creating a national precedent/decision and overturning DOMA.
Or, more likely, the Supreme Court strikes this down, but I suppose we won't know that unless it happens...

[editer]

If the trial is vacated, then the vote to repeal P-8 stands, and gay marriage proceeds. Good for gays.

Huh? What vote? If the trial is vacated, then legally it never happened, right? And Prop 8 remains the law of California. Bad for gays.

[blackbyrd2]

Crap. I have no idea what I was thinking. (Actually, I do, I just don't want to admit publicly how incredibly lame I am. Oops. Too late.)

If the trial is vacated, then it would/could be retried, but probably without participating defendants, at this point, similar to as indicated in the last sentence point.