The legal status of same-sex marriage headed back toward the California Supreme Court on Tuesday for a ruling that could potentially resolve the future of voter-passed Proposition 8.

The state’s highest court, which has considered the issue twice in the last three years, was drawn back into the fray by a panel of federal appeals court judges. The panel asked for guidance on the seemingly technical, but perhaps decisive, issue of who has the legal right to defend the ballot initiative on appeal, what is known in court as “standing.”

In August, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that Proposition 8 violates the U.S. Constitution because it deprives same-sex couples of equal protection under the law. Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and then-Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown declined to appeal Walker’s ruling, accepting his decision to strike down the ban.

The rules regarding who has standing have been made steadily tougher over the last several decades by conservative judges — an irony in the current case since it is conservative legal groups that are battling to establish standing. Reinhardt, who is widely considered among the most liberal judges on the 9th Circuit, noted that fact in a separate opinion expressing frustration that he and the other two 9th Circuit judges could not yet consider the substance of the case.

The “trend in our judicial system over the past few decades … emphasizes technical rules over deciding cases on the merits, and indeed over the merits themselves,” he wrote.

“Oral argument before this court was viewed on television and the Internet by more people than have ever watched an appellate court proceeding in the history of the nation,” Reinhardt wrote, urging the state high court to decide the standing issue quickly.

Separately, the appeals court panel also rejected an attempt by Imperial County officials to defend the same-sex marriage ban. Imperial County’s deputy clerk had sought to appeal Walker’s ruling. But the judges rejected that effort, saying regulation of marriage laws is a matter for the state, not individual counties.

Equality California, one of the gay rights groups that has backed Walker’s ruling, praised the appeals court’s orders.

“We are optimistic that the case will be dismissed, marriage equality restored and that same-sex couples and their families will finally enjoy equality and dignity under the law,” said the group’s executive director, Geoff Kors.

Article posted at LAtime.com on 1/5/2011. Read Full Article: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0105-prop8-ruling-20110105,0,7062848.story