You may have noticed that litigating Prop. 8* has become a full employment project for lawyers (Not that there's anything wrong with that ...). They're back at it today: The Ninth Circuit is hearing two appeals from the folks who originally put Prop. 8 on the California popular ballot. According to the Courage Campaign's Prop. 8 Trial Tracker,
The first hearing, at 2:30 p.m. PST, will regard the appeal of Judge Ware's decision to release the Prop 8 recordings taken during the initial trial. The second hearing, at 3:30 p.m. PST, regards the appeal of Judge Ware's ruling to deny the proponents' motion to dismiss Judge Walker's decision because he did not disclose that he is in a long-term relationship with a man (shorter: Prop 8 backers said Judge Walker is gay so he is biased so his decision should be dismissed, Judge Ware denied their motion, Prop 8 backers appealed to the 9th Circuit).
This is not a hearing about our favorite issue of standing. That will come in yet more hearings. I'm starting to think that the Ninth Circuit's goal is just to slow this issue down with an endless array of discussions about every minor point, in the hopes that the U.S. Congress will knock down DOMA before the Ninth ever has to issue a decision that could conceivably be appealed to the Supreme Court. Because SCOTUS just loves to overturn the Ninth.
But never fear! The Supremes have plenty of other chances to think about. *Check here and here for some background on where Prop 8 stands in the ongoing panoply of DOMA challenges.
**Is something wrong with me? When I think the word "DOMA" I start to hear someone singing it, in my head, to this tune.
