Prop. 8: Briefing completed in state court
on Apr 18, 2011 at 4:06 pm
Backers of California’s Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage filed the final written arguments on Monday in the California Supreme Court, on the question of whether they have a right under state law to defend their measure in court when state officials refused to do so. The 51-page brief can be found here. The filing argued that the proponents can stand in for the state, that this will not intrude in any way on state officials’ powers, and that they also have a right on their own to defend their handiwork in court. While this completes the briefing before the state court, the case is not now expected to advance in coming months, since the state court has indicated it does not plan to hold oral argument on the case until September. That probably means a decision by the state court won’t come until late this year, at the earliest — and then the case would return to the Ninth Circuit Court, to determine whether, in fact, the appeal by the proponents can go forward.
