Metro Weekly:
Charles Cooper, the lead attorney for the proponents of Proposition 8, tells Metro Weekly that the proponents of the California marriage amendment will be asking the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to review the three-judge panel decision issued on Feb. 7 holding that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.
Although Cooper, of Cooper and Kirk PLLC, told Metro Weekly the filing has not yet been made, the filing is expected later today as today is the deadline for the filing to seek en banc review.
This means the proponents are essentially asking the Ninth Circuit to re-review Judge Walker's District Court decision with a slightly larger panel of judges. This also means it will be even longer before the case reaches the stage where someone can ask for a petition for
certiorari at the Supreme Court.
It's a delay tactic (and not surprising at all but still newsworthy.)
After a decision by the en banc panel comes out, there could be further delay:
After that decision is reached, theoretically, a party dissatisfied with an en banc ruling of the Ninth Circuit can ask for the full Ninth Circuit to review the en banc panel's decision, but the court has not agreed to do so since adopting the "limited en banc" procedure.
So we'll see.