Mulligan and again and again...

After all, we wouldn't want to
be rude to the hate-mongers.

So the good news for gay people in California who want to get married is this: the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals won't re-hear the bullshit arguments of homophobes who maintain that same sex marriage causes earthquakes and plane crashes. The bad news is that our legal system affords every sandwich board-wearing whackjob with a megaphone and a selective interpretation of the Bible the right to appeal the appeal of the appeal. Sure, everybody deserves their day in court but these guys have had like fifteen chances to make their case and the courts have repeatedly come down on the side of 'if you don't like it then don't get gay married.'

"No, it's cool, we'll just endure second-class
status until you get your paperwork together."

-Gays

So what's the problem? I mean, they lost right? Well, despite being struck down, Prop 8 is still functionally in force until jackholes like Focus on the Family and National Organization for Marriage can mount yet another appeal, this time to the Supreme Court and while that's going on same sex weddings will have to wait. So Prop 8 gets passed and presto: gay marriage is banned. Then gets overturned because it was designed only to '...lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California...' and gay couples still have to wait. What the hell? Shouldn't there be some sort of constitutional right or clause that protects people from arbitrary crap like this?

To put this in nerd terms, it would be like if after destroying the Empire once and for all at the end of Return of the Jedi, the Rebel Alliance had to give the bad guys a few extra years to keep on oppressing the Galaxy and build some more Deathstars.

"My Death Star? Destroyed? I call a do-over, and no attacking until I'm ready!"

-Emperor Palpatine exercising his 'Mulligan Rights'

as guaranteed by the Imperial Constitution