Litigation

Ninth Circuit Punts Marriage Case to Cal Supremes

By Bruce Nye

This is a little bit out of our usual discussion areas, but pretty interesting.  It looks as though Perry v. Schwarznegger (the Proposition 8 marriage case, soon to be renamed Perry v. Brown) will stand or fall on whether the proponents have standing to appeal the District Court's ruling throwing out Proposition 8.  So the Ninth Circuit has certified that standing issue to the California Supreme Court.  And by the way, the deputy clerk from Imperial County who wanted to defend Prop 8?  No standing.

Meanwhile, Judge Rheinhardt, the liberal lion of the Ninth Circuit, files a concurrence both bemoaning highly technical standing rules, lambasting Plaintiff's counsel David Boies and Ted Olson for suing only two counties, and questioning whether the (former) governator and (former) attorney general (and now governor redux) shouldn't have defended the case.

Full post as published by CalBizLit on January 04, 2011 (boomark / email).