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My partner and I were picking all the scenarios apart last night. It looks as if the 9th is giving them lit dynamite and telling them to stick it up their asses. The proponents have no standing and no case. They didn't even really show up at the trial. If you read the play-by-play tweets, they mounted zero defense other than sticking our their chin and asserting "well, just because we claim so". The ruling was an awful lot of findings of fact with findings of law as the icing on the cake. If the proponents had had any case to present, they would have presented it the first time.
See how far "just because I say so" got Oily Taint. Heh.
The down-side I see (just as a layman) is the fact that Walker's decision is a trial case and doesn't have precedential authority. I'm guessing (hoping) that marriage will resume in CA, but the decision won't have precent-setting authority outside the 9th. Pity for the rest of us. On the up-side, the ruling is one helluva gorgeous beast, the workings of which will probably be useful as a how-to in going after oppressive laws elsewhere.
I hope an attorney would help me out here. I don't have the expertise to expound on my reasoning, but after reading the tweet-by-tweet account of the trial and the ruling, if *I* were any sort of a judge, I'd have to say to the proponents to GTF out of my courtroom unless they had some damn facts to present instead of rumor, smear, innuendo, and "shit I found on the intertoobs". The plaintiffs presented some pretty powerful, well-researched, scientific fact. Even if I weren't a gay man, that amount of research would have to impress me and the defendants' complete and utter demonstration of hysteria and incompetence would totally piss me off.
I should wonder if the 9th's panel would want their time wasted with any more circus antics. Their reaction will be interesting to watch. I can guess at several scenarios to follow with completely different outcomes, most of which are mostly positive.
Even if by some miracle Whitman is elected governor, takes up the case and gives the defendants some legal standing, they still haven't presented and aren't likely to gather a case.
Now, all of that is JMHO. Reality in puke-land is 99% invention and has little to do with reality in the real universe. They may try to press the case forward, but I don't see how they'll have any better chance. Again, real attorneys on this board will have a far better understanding. I don't even play one on TV.
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