The high-profile trial of Proposition 8 ended Wednesday, but a ruling likely won't arrive until March.

Lawyers fighting for and against Proposition 8, the gay marriage ban approved by California voters in 2008, jostled for the last time as the trial concluded its two-and-a-half week run of contentious testimony in a San Francisco courtroom.

Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker cleared the courtroom without a ruling, saying he wanted to review the evidence before listening to closing arguments, perhaps in February. The decision to wrap up at a later date has likely pushed back a ruling until March.

“I'd like to take some time to go over all the material,” Walker told the army of lawyers arguing the case before dismissing the courtroom.

Inside the courtroom, David Boies, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, picked up where he left off Tuesday: grilling defense witness David Blankenhorn.

In the cross-examining, Blankenhorn, founder and president of the conservative think tank Institute for American Values, became visibly exasperated at Boies' persistent attack, accusing him of setting up “gotcha” moments.

Boies devastated the witness, whose surprising testimony included the admission that legalizing gay marriage would “improve the well-being of gay and lesbian households and their children,” that homophobia is a “real presence” in our society and that gay marriage in the United States would make the country “more American.”

Lawyers in favor of gay marriage have argued that proponents of Proposition 8 approved the measure out of animus towards gay men and lesbians. The defense says limiting marriage to heterosexual unions fosters a stable environment to raise children.

Blankenhorn's Tuesday testimony drove home their argument: “Marriage is a socially approved sexual relationship between a man and a woman. Marriage does a number of things, but the most important thing it does is regulate affiliation. It establishes who are the child's legal and social parents.”

Prevailing wisdom is that Walker will rule in favor of Proposition 8 opponents, if only for the failure of ban supporters to attract credible witnesses. Proposition 8 lawyers called only 2 witnesses to testify in favor of the gay marriage ban, while lawyers for the plaintiffs strung together weeks' worth of testimony from 17 experts.

Opponents of gay marriage, however, are likely to appeal Walker's ruling. The case is expected to reach the Supreme Court, where a favorable ruling has the possibility of striking down gay marriage bans in dozens of states simultaneously. Gay marriage activists have warned that the high court remains too conservative to rule in their favor and an unfriendly ruling would set back the movement, possibly by decades.