Without weighing in on the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act or the Obama administration’s position on gay marriage, a California judge has rejected a federal court employee’s effort to get federal health benefits for her wife.

A unanimous California Supreme Court agreed Wednesday to answer the 9th Circuit’s questions on standing in the Proposition 8 gay marriage case, with arguments to be held as early as September.

Stephen Reinhardt is one of the three judges who will hear arguments over the state’s gay marriage ban next week.

Before gay marriage foes filed their first brief to the 9th Circuit seeking to restore Prop 8, both parties agreed to open up the matter to amicus curiae briefs. The first to weigh in is a man named Robert Wooten, who wastes no time getting personal, at least for Judge Vaughn Walker, who delivered the landmark ruling calling Prop 8 unconstitutional.

If Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker is looking for a little more ammunition to shoot down California’s Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage, one of his Massachusetts colleagues has given him some. U.S