The Question of Standing

Another article and some other points of view on the ruling of "standing" in the Prop 8 case. From the Orange County register:

Some advocates of gay marriage won't be satisfied if same-sex couples are allowed to marry in California because of the technical issue of standing. They want a Supreme Court precedent on a national level. And that's what the two high-powered attorneys challenging Prop. 8, Ted Olson and David Boies, were after when they entered the fray.

"The standing issue is just a distraction from the main issue," said Douglas NeJaime, who specializes in law and sexuality at Loyola Law School. "What the Olson-Boies team really wants is a decision on the merits."

So instead of first asking the appeals court to throw out the appeal on the basis of standing before arguing the merits, Olson and Bois could choose to argue the case on merits and standing simultaneously, NeJaime said.

But Katherine Darmer, a Chapman Law School professor, thinks Olson and Bois would be content to win the case on the issue of standing.

"I suspect they would take a standing victory and go with it," said Darmer, a Prop. 8 opponent who's legal committee chairwoman of the Orange County Equality Coalition. "I also think it would be far less risky than going all the way to the Supreme Court on the merits. This is a safer route to equality for the largest state in the U.S., which will impact not just the country, but the globe."