Jerry Fishkin, who represents Sergio Garcia, told me that three lawyers argued for admission despite Garcia's lack of legal status in the USA: Jerry, a lawyer for the State Bar of California, and a lawyer for the state of California. Opposing the admission was a lawyer from the DOJ. Jerry says that the bench peppered all the lawyers with tough, pertinent questions and that it wasn't possible to "count votes" based upon the argument. [But see the update below including a link to the oral argument. My sense is that Mr. Garcia is likely to lose his case.] Under California law, the decision must be rendered within 90 days of the oral argument.
Here's a news story at NPR laying out some of the technical arguments in the case. For example, it is being argued once a client knows of Garcia's status, the client cannot legally pay Garcia. And there is a federal statute barring professional licensing of certain persons without legal status in the USA.
UPDATE: How Appealing has some helpful links to the oral argument on Youtube and some news articles from the San Jose Mercury News and Los Angeles Times suggesting that Garcia's case was in trouble.
UPDATE 2: As I listen to the oral argument, it struck me that so many of the justices were born abroad (Kennard, Werdeger) or had a parent born abroad (Liu, Cantil-Sakauye, Chin). Two of the justices were born in the San Joaquin Valley (Baxter, Corrigan). The court's opposition to Garcia went down a little easier for me in light of the demographics of the court.
UPDATE 3: I'm now listening to the State of California's lawyer, who also faces an uphill battle. The high court seems disinclined to treat lawyers differently than other professions, even though lawyers are uniquely regulated by the high court. That disinclination reminds me of the recent SCOTUS trend, under the Roberts court, not to treat lawyers differently than other people when construing a federal statute. For a legal ethicist, it's an oral argument well worth listening to.
UPDATE 4: The over-under line in Vegas should be 5-2, I think. Justices Liu and Werderger could side for Garcia; the others won't, I believe. Justice Liu's questions to the DOJ lawyer were focused on a narrow, technical interpretation that might support Garcia.