FWIW, my impression of the quotes I’ve seen from the discussion on standing is that there is a serious legal question as to whether or not the defendants have the right to be heard in federal court.
If the court dismisses this case on the basis of standing, that would leave in place the 9th Circuit decision overturning Proposition 8.
Chief Justice Roberts seems firmly on the side that standing should not be granted. As usual, Justice Kennedy made statements that could go either way.
Roberts might be right that they don’t usually allow this, but it makes no sense to call for a lack of standing.
If the PEOPLE of a state have the right to amend their constitution, which they clearly do in California, then the PEOPLE of the state should directly have standing to defend their constitutional amendment against claims that it violates the federal constitution.
Oddly, given that Roberts went out of his way to give deference to the legislative branch in his Obamacare ruling, I would expect that he would reject the constitutional question here, and let the congress have it’s way. And I would expect he would cite all the recent “We are for gay marriage” pronouncements by elected representatives as a clear indication that there is nothing stopping the congress, or a state, from approving gay marriage if they want.
I’m not disagreeing with your reasoning, but a caller to Rush, and Rush himself, just got through saying that if the 9th circus granted standing to an entity that didn’t deserve it and heard the case and ruled, that the entire proceeding of the 9th circus could be invalidated, which would leave in place prop 8.
I don’t know. I’m quoting what I heard. Rush said this is one reason for a lot of confusion in this case.