Just What We Don't Need -- Copycat Marriage Litigation!

Here's the problem when a preliminary victory -- such as Judge Walker's ruling in Perry v. Schwarzenegger -- gets the media's attention: copycat litigation that is going to muddy the waters.

The Associated Press reports that a gay male couple - Ryan W. Dupree and David Shupe-Roderick - applied for a marriage license in Cheyenne, Wyoming, were turned down, and have filed a lawsuit in the US District Court in Cheyenne, where the case has been assigned to District Judge Alan B. Johnson.  The two men have not hired a lawyer, according to the report.  They are representing themselves, and requesting that Johnson issue an injunction against enforcement of Wyoming laws banning same-sex marriage.  Judge Johnson was appointed to the bench in 1985 by Ronald Reagan, and for a time during the 1990s was chief judge of the District Court in Wyoming. 

The news report does not say whether either of these men is a lawyer.  Do they think that because a federal trial judge in San Francisco declared Proposition 8 unconstitutional, they can just run into any federal district court and get an injunction against their state?  Did they stop paying attention to the news and not realize that Judge Walker's decision is stayed pending appeal?  And that Wyoming is not in the 9th Circuit, so even a positive ruling by the court of  appeals on the Prop 8 case would not be binding on their judge?

Good luck to them, but this does not strike me as a good idea.