Jim Lehrer NewsHour – “After Calif. Same-Sex Marriage Ruling, What's Ahead Legally for Both Sides?”
RAY SUAREZ: . . . And, Professor, let me start with you. Today, that notice to appeal was filed, a formality. But what does flipping that switch do? What do the two teams involved in the original case start doing now?
ROBERT GEORGE, professor of jurisprudence, Princeton University: Well, they start to prepare their briefs and arguments for the appeal, which will be before a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit.
They will then either uphold Judge Walker or reverse him. However that comes out, it will likely then lead to a petition for a hearing en banc, that is, to have all the judges of the Ninth Circuit review the case. And then, however that comes out, it will go to the Supreme Court of the United States.
It's a peculiarity of our system that a decision as fateful as this one might very well fall to a single judge's decision, but that judge won't be Vaughn Walker. That judge might very well be Anthony Kennedy, Justice Anthony Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States.
