Just hours after Judge Vaughn R. Walker banged the final gavel in the trial of Proposition 8 – California’s same-sex marriage ban – the two top lawyers challenging the law, David Boies and Theodore Olson, were holding court again: this time at a small private dinner with donors in San Francisco.

The meal, with a handful of people who have given money to the group challenging the ban, could well be seen as the opening maneuver in the second act of the saga of Proposition 8, which both sides expect to wind its way up the federal judicial food chain, most likely all the way to the Supreme Court.

“We would immediately appeal,” Andrew Pugno, a lawyer for the proponents of Proposition 8, said when asked if his side were to lose in Judge Walker’s court. The plaintiffs agree.

Full Story from the NY Times

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So, that is over. Well, it is minus the little part about Judge Vaughn Walker issuing his ruling. But both sides – AFER’s Olson-Boies and ProtectMarriage.com’s Charles Cooper – have rested their cases. And even if you’re a supporter of Prop 8, you’ve got to admit: the defense blew it.

In Perry v. Schwarzenegger, it was Olson and Boies, on behalf of their gay couple defendants, who were required to prove their case: That Prop 8 is unconstitutional, was motivated by animus, and must be struck down. They did it. More than adequately. And they didn’t just make the legal argument (which we’re well aware is the most important), but the logical one – how legalizing same-sex marriage won’t keep straight couples from getting married or having kids, and how re-authorizing marriages for gay couples will make more families more stable. And without question, Cooper’s roster of “experts” completely annihilated ProtectMarriage.com’s core arguments. There’s just no way around it; their own witnesses admitted laws like the Defense of Marriage Act, similar in many ways to Prop 8, are discriminatory. And how legalizing same-sex marriage is – wait for it, wait for it – a good thing.

The entire production was an embarrassment for the defense. That is an objective observation. And Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage (which was not a defendant in the case), accidentally confirmed as much in a live chat following Wednesday’s closing arguments.

Full Story from Queerty

Click here for gay marriage resources.

To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.