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Six weeks after a federal appeals court ruled Imperial County lacked the legal standing to defend Proposition 8, the conservative legal nonprofit Advocates for Faith & Freedom revised its petition hoping to get back into the courtroom.

The main change: the group now represents the newly elected Imperial County clerk, Chuck Storey.

In its new petition, Advocates for Faith & Freedom argues that Storey, whose official legal duties include certifying marriages, will be directly impacted by the outcome of this case.

Conservative groups are hopeful Imperial County will be able to re-enter the case because of the wording of the Jan. 4 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, which denied standing to the the county's conservative Board of Supervisors and a deputy county clerk.

In the ruling, the three-judge panel disqualified the deputy clerk on the grounds that she reported to the county clerk and as such had no power herself.

"Were Imperial County’s elected County Clerk the applicant for intervention, that argument might have merit. A County Clerk is not before us, however, so we need not, and do not, decide now whether a County Clerk would have been permitted to intervene under the circumstances present in this case," the panel wrote.

Allowing a county clerk to defend a statewide ballot measure would be highly unusual, but the Prop. 8 litigation is somewhat unique because officeholders in Sacramento have refused to defend the initiative.

Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and then-Attorney General Jerry Brown declined to defend the voter-approved same-sex marriage ban. Brown is now governor and the new attorney general, Kamala Harris, has made it clear she will not defend the measure either. 

The new petition by Advocates for Faith & Freedom comes on the heels of one filed by Prop. 8's opponents — represented by Ted Olson and David Boies — which asked the 9th Circuit to lift the stay on same-sex marriages that was temporarily imposed when Prop. 8 was ruled unconstitutional last August.

“We had a trial, an exhaustive trial,” said Boies. “We are now at two-and-a-half years since Prop. 8 passed. We are going on almost a year since it was held unconstitutional, and we simply believe it is time to allow gay and lesbian Californians the same rights.”

It is unclear when the appeals court might rule on the two petitions.