Same Sex Case May Not Reach SCOTUS

Huffington Post reports:

WASHINGTON -- The legal dream team behind the successful challenge to California's law banning gay marriage may end up having their work stalled by arcane legal processes.

In a Wednesday morning briefing for reporters, lawyers David Boies and Ted Olson -- who argued against each other in Bush v. Gore -- reiterated their desire to see the U.S. Supreme Court issue a sweeping ruling determining that any law intervening on an individual's right to marry was an abridgement of the Constitution's equal protection clause.

But complex hurdles that remain, and the odd-couple legal duo acknowledged that such a decision could take months if not years to materialize. More important, any decision could be confined to California.

At issue is whether or not defenders of Proposition 8 -- the California law passed by ballot initiative that banned gay marriage -- have standing to appeal the ruling from U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker that overturned it. The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco has asked the California Supreme Court to issue a ruling on that matter. They are likely to do so only as early as September, and it's not clear to anyone involved what the final decision might be.