Nebraska Defense of Marriage Case

Over at How Appealing there are a bunch of links to reports on today's 8th Circuit argument. And you can access the oral argument in the case by clicking here (RealPlayer required.

And the following is an eyewitness account from a lawyer who attended the argument and knows the case well:

I'll send everyone a complete rundown tomorrow, but in short, things could not have gone better for us today.

Two of the three judges openly stated that they didn't think Romer was applicable to Section 29.

In fact, they really didn't want to hear Matt's standing argument, and they directed him to discuss Romer.

I believe the court doesn't want to decide this case on standing because they want an opportunity to chastise the district court's opinion on the merits.

Loken and Bowman (particularly Loken) were very hard on Tamara Lange. She barely got through her first sentence before they peppered her with questions re: the court's Romer analysis. The onslaught didn't subside for at least 15 minutes.

I helped moot court Deputy Attorney General Matt McNair for this argument, and I am sure he did a wonderful job in defending the People's right to say what marriage is--and what it is not-- in Nebraska.