The California Supreme Court granted the request to take a certified question today, as requested by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The question challenged the legitimacy of Prop. 8 in the Perry v. Schwarzenegger California case.
How will this affect the LGBT community and politics everywhere in the nation?
If a certified question is allowed to presented on behalf of orders from the U.S. Court of Appeals, there must be an actual “case or controversy” presented to a federal court in order for it to hear a case under the rights delineated by the U.S. Constitution.
In the Perry challenge to Proposition 8, none of the parties who enforce Proposition 8 chose to appeal the Aug, 4, 2010 trial court ruling the struck Prop. 8 as unconstitutional. This means state officials, including the governor and attorney general, by default, have not appealed that ruling.
While proponents of Proposition 8 have attempted to appeal the ruling to the Ninth Circuit, that court cannot hear the appeal if there are no parties with standing to appeal the ruling.
The question then remains: do proponents for Proposition 8 have standing?
Now, California’s high court will be deciding whether under proponents have standing rights under Article II, Section 8 of the California Constitution, or otherwise under California law.
If the California Supreme Court rules for the proponents to have a “particularized interest” or “authority,” the Ninth Circuit could then find the proponents to have standing.
If the proponents are indeed found to have standing, the appeal of the Perry challenge for Prop. 8 could go forward.
The California court said it aims to hold oral arguments for Proposition 8 and the Perry challenge as early as September, 2011.
