U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker heard closing arguments on Wednesday, June 16 in the trial over the constitutionality of Proposition 8 in California after testimony in the case ended in January. Five hours of arguments revealed a spirited question-and-answer session between Walker and lead defense attorney Charles Cooper over what Walker said was the defense’s lack of evidence.

Cooper repeatedly attempted to argue that voters backed the gay-marriage ban in 2008 to preserve the traditional definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman, as well as its main focus of procreation and “channeling” the sexual behavior of heterosexuals into “stable, marital unions.”

The defense, however, presented only one witness during the trial to counter nearly two solid weeks of testimony from the plaintiffs.

“What testimony in this case supports the proposition?” Walker asked Cooper.

“You don’t have to have evidence of this,” Cooper said.

Attorneys for the plaintiff—high-profile litigators David Boies and Ted Olson —felt the defense faltered in January when its “witnesses acknowledged that they couldn’t prove that gay marriage would harm others,” according to the Sacramento Bee.

“None of the defendants’ witnesses supported those propositions. In fact all of the (defense) witnesses who spoke on those issues ended up giving contrary testimony,” Boies told the newspaper.

Walker did not give a timetable for his ruling, though it was predicted that the first step after he decides whether Prop. 8 violates the federal equal-protection rights of California’s gay and lesbian couples would be an appeal to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which likely would not rule on the case until sometime next year.