Yesterday, KQED’s Scott Shafer interviewed UC Davis law professor and associate dean Vikram Amar about the Federal Appeals Court order asking the California Supreme Court for “certification” on the question of “standing,” or the right to sue in court.
Certification is basically a call for guidance on state law. In this case the court wants to know whether a California proposition’s sponsors have standing when the state’s officeholders — in this case Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown — decline to do so.
Amar talked about the certification legal process, and how it might play out in the Proposition 8 case. He also said that there may be a “virtue” in slowing the case down, as legal treatment of and societal attitudes about same-sex marriage continue to evolve.