What If?

After hearing oral arguments for the case Hollingsworth v. Perry it has been speculated by many that the court will find that the proponents of Prop 8 do not have standing to bring the case. Vikram Amar's recent column in Verdict explores what might happen.

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But if the Court finds no sponsor standing, what happens next? ...For starters, if sponsor standing is found to be lacking, everyone agrees (or certainly ought to agree) that the Ninth Circuit opinion invalidating Proposition 8 on the merits and creating law of the Ninth Circuit that could conceivably affect other states and also other issues in the Circuit would be vacated, that is, figuratively erased.  Beyond that, there is also broad agreement that the two named same-sex couples in the Hollingsworth case who sought marriage licenses from the county clerks in Alameda and Los Angeles counties, respectively, should get their licenses.  But exactly why and how these two named couples would get the relief they seek is where commentators seem to diverge.  

Vikram Amar plans to release a follow up column on April 26th