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Updated 2:15 p.m. EST
As announced yesterday, the Ninth Circuit made a filing in the Prop 8 case, and, also as suspected, it dealt with the request by proponents for the Court to hear the case en banc.
Check out the filing details, community reactinos and more after the jump!
"A majority of the panel has voted to deny the petition for rehearing en banc," the court wrote.
The court has decided not to further review the Prop 8 case with an expanded panel of 11 judges. Prop 8 proponents now have 90 days to send the issue to the Supreme Court.
Metro Weekly's Chris Geidner expands on the meaning of today's filing:
Assuming that the proponents will seek Supreme Court review of their appellate loss, they would file a petition for a writ of certiorari. The plaintiffs and the state defendants -- who have opposed Proposition 8's constitutionality -- as well as outside groups and individuals would then be able to file a response to the proponents' filing.
The Supreme Court, which generally recesses for the summer by late June, would then consider the petition after that briefing is completed, likely once the justices return in the fall. By Supreme Court practice, four of the justices would need to want to hear the case in order for the court to accept it.
If the court accepts review of the case that was brought by the American Foundation for Equal Rights in 2009, then a full briefing schedule and oral argument would be set.
The Ninth's original decision against Proposition 8 has again been put on hold to give anti-gay supporters time to file with SCOTUS. "The mandate is stayed for ninety days pending the filing of a petition for writ of certiorari in the Supreme Court. If such a petition is filed, the stay shall continue until final disposition by the Supreme Court."
The American Foundation for Equal Rights, the organization that launched the suit, has issued a statement:
Today’s order is yet another federal court victory for loving, committed gay and lesbian couples in California and around the nation,” said AFER co-founder Chad Griffin. “The final chapter of the Proposition 8 case has now begun. Should the United States Supreme Court decide to review the Ninth Circuit’s decision in our case, I am confident that the Justices will stand on the side of fairness and equality.” On February 7, 2012, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit concluded that Proposition 8 violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Ninth Circuit panel majority held: "Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples. The Constitution simply does not allow for laws of this sort.”
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