Oral argument tomorrow in D.C. Marriage Initiative case

Jackson v. District of Columbia Bd. of Elections, Civ. No. 2009 CA 008613 B, slip.op. (D. C. Super., Jan. 14, 2010), petition for cert., Jan. 15, 2010, No. 10-CV-20 (D.C. Ct. App.)

Oral argument will occur tomorrow at 10 a.m. in a D.C. appellate case involving the disqualified Marriage Initiative of 2009. (ADF press release / D.C. Court of Appeals calendar) It appears likely to reach the U.S. Supreme Court. Plaintiff-proponents of the initiative were also Supreme Court petitioners who, in March, tried to keep D.C.'s marriage equality law from taking effect, pending the Court's review of decisions to disqualify a referendum on the law. Chief Justice Roberts denied the petition. He did not rule on the merits of the argument by petitioners, but he found that it "has some force." He said that petitioners would not lose opportunity to test a very similar argument, taking notice of the initiative case before the D.C. Court of Appeals:

[T]he D. C. Court of Appeals will have the chance to consider the relevant legal questions on their merits, and petitioners will have the right to challenge any adverse decision through a petition for certiorari in this Court at the appropriate time.

Although the D.C. Court of Appeals offers real-time, video streaming of oral argument, I expect public interest to overwhelm server capacity.