Judge Walker's Prop 8 ruling upheld: here's what happens next.

[TheWraith]

As you may have heard, Judge Walker's ruling on the Proposition 8 case in California was upheld on appeal today by the US District court.

That means that--assuming, of course, that the pro-8 group continues to try to appeal--their next step above the District court is the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. They'll file, and the 9th Circuit will decide whether or not to hear it.

If they decide to hear it, that means in essence a repeat of the district court case, where the pro-8 group tries to present a case for why Walker's ruling is no good and should be overturned. If this happens, it's highly unlikely that they would overturn Walker's verdict.

On the chance that the 9th Circuit doesn't decide to hear the appeal--which is less likely but still possible--then the pro-8 group would have to try to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Either way, the SCOTUS is the next step after the 9th Circuit, and they also decide whether to hear the case or not. This is much harder than getting heard by the 9th Circuit, and if the 9th Circuit chooses not to hear the appeal, the odds of the SCOTUS listening are even lower.

Put in simple terms, this is a long way from over, but the odds of the other side winning went down sharply today.

[kwassa]

1. Fantastic news!

[Metta]

Mazel tov. Way past time to be put to rest.

:hi:

[Metta]

2. duplicate

nt

[sabrina 1]

3. Good, I was just reading about that this morning.

I wonder what this SC will do? I would think that they would rule on the law, not on ideology but you never know.

The legal arguments seem to fairly solid imo. He was not married, not intending to get married so how was there a conflict of interest?

[wryter2000]

4. Thanks for the analysis

When does it ever end? Still, good news for today.

[TheWraith]

5. The court system is designed to be slow, I'm afraid.

The only thing designed to be slower is Congress.

[Brother Buzz]

8. Slow is good for the Proposition 8 proponents

They don't want this wedge issue to die a sudden, yet expected death.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. Thanks for the nice summation/update.

:hi:

[RandySF]

7. As much as I want to win, I do not want to win on the standing issue.

If we win based on the h8te side's standing, I feel we're going to be fighting with ballot propositions forever. I want to win on the core issue of Equal Protection and settle it once and for all.

[TheWraith]

9. I'm not sure that I follow you--how are we talking about their standing?

Today's ruling was about their attempt to get Walker's verdict overturned on the grounds that he wasn't impartial.