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Written Arguments Submitted in Prop 8 Case Over Judge’s Orientation

Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011

A federal judge’s failure to disclose whether he intended to marry his long-term, same-sex partner before presiding over the Proposition 8 case amounts to misconduct that requires the removal of his ruling against the 2008 ballot measure, lawyers opposed to gay marriage told a federal appeals court.

In written arguments to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, both sides in the gay marriage legal dispute debated whether the sexual orientation of retired Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker might have affected the case.

The 9th Circuit, considering the arguments filed over the last few weeks, has put Walker’s ruling on hold pending a decision on whether to uphold or overturn it.

Full Story from The Los Angeles Times

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Tags: Judge walker, orientation, prop 8, trial

CA: Hearing Tomorrow on Prop 8 Trial Videotapes

Sunday, August 28th, 2011

First, there was a federal court trial. Then, there was a hearing on whether to sequester videotapes of the trial; Monday, there will be a hearing on whether to release the videotapes of the trial.

But even before the August 29 hearing takes place on whether to release to the public videotapes of the landmark trial challenging California’s same-sex marriage ban — Proposition 8 — there has already been decision to prohibit the recording of the hearing on whether to release the trial videotapes.

Such has been the Proposition 8 trial -Perry v. Brown (formerly known as Perry v. Schwarzenegger). It is a court battle so contentious it has already involved 34 judges and the filing of over a thousand documents, said Chad Griffin. Griffin is head of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, an organization formed specifically to finance the legal challenge to Proposition 8.

Full Story from LGBTQ Nation

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Tags: california, prop 8 trial, trial, videotapes

CA: Shannon Minter on the Prop 8 Trial Tapes

Sunday, August 28th, 2011

Speaking to the weakness of the Prop 8 Proponent’s case, and the moving stories of witnesses for the right to marry a same-sex partner in California, Shannon Minter, Esq., Legal Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, NCLR and their lead attorney for the Prop 8 case – has set out his point of view, in a letter to supporters as follows:

On August 29, 2011, U.S. District Court Judge James Ware will hear arguments about whether to unseal the video recordings of the historic trial in Perry v. Brown, the federal court challenge to Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure that stripped the freedom to marry from same-sex couples in California.

After a three-week trial in January 2010, now-retired Chief District Judge Vaughan Walker issued a decision in August 2010, holding that Prop 8 was based on anti-gay animus and blatantly violated the equality guarantees of the federal Constitution. That ruling has been on hold while the proponents of Prop 8 appeal Judge Walker’s ruling.

Full Story from Gay USA

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Tags: california, prop 8, trial, video tapes

CA: Hearing on Prop 8 Trial Videos May Be Broadcast

Wednesday, August 24th, 2011

A court hearing next week over whether video of the 2010 Proposition 8 trial in San Francisco should be unsealed may itself be broadcasted.

The Associated Press reports that U.S. district chief judge James Ware notified attorneys in the case that he would like to record the Aug. 29 proceedings on the matter.

Lawyers representing backers of the antigay ballot initiative oppose the broadcast and have fought to keep sealed video of the trial, which includes testimony by leading LGBT scholars and a withering cross-examination of gay marriage opponent David Blankenhorn by attorney David Boies.

Full Story from The Advocate

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Tags: hearing, prop 8, trial, videotapes

CA: Prop 8 Trial on Standing Issue To Be Televised

Monday, August 1st, 2011

Oral arguments on a legal standing question in the Proposition 8 case will be televised live in September, according to a California Supreme Court spokeswoman.

Of the September 6 hearing, SF Appeal reports that “because of public interest in the case, the court has approved a live statewide television broadcast of the arguments on the California Channel, a public affairs network,” according to spokeswoman Lynn Holton.

In February, the state supreme court certified a question from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, where the case is currently on appeal, on whether under state law the backers of an initiative have “the authority to assert the State’s interest” when public officials refuse to do so.

Full Story from The Advocate

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Tags: prop 8, standing, televised, trial

CA: Judge Says Prop 8 Judge Didn’t Need to Recuse Himself Because He’s Gay

Wednesday, June 15th, 2011

A federal judge in California has upheld a ruling that declared Proposition 8, California’s gay marriage ban, unconstitutional.

Proponents of the ban on Monday asked U.S. District Judge James Ware to invalidate Judge Vaughn Walker’s August ruling overturning the 2008 voter-approved ban because Walker has since acknowledged that he’s gay and in a ten-year relationship with a physician.

The 67-year-old Walker acknowledged that he’s gay after he retired from the bench. Lawyers for Protect Marriage, the coalition of socially conservative groups defending the law, argued that Walker should have recused himself because he’s in a same-sex relationship and stood to personally benefit from the verdict.

Full Story From On Top Magazine

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Tags: Judge Vaughn Walker, proposition 8, recusal, trial

Thirteen Media Organizations Push for Release of Prop 8 Trial Videos

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

A group of media organizations filed a brief yesterday requesting the court unseal videotapes of the trial which successfully overturned California’s Proposition 8, the AP reports:

The 13 organizations, which include The Associated Press, argued in a motion filed Monday with the 9th U.S. Court of Appeals that the videos are court records that the First Amendment requires to be open to the public.

Sponsors of voter-approved Proposition 8 asked the 9th Circuit last week to keep the tapes sealed and to order the trial’s presiding judge to return his personal copies.

Full Story from Towleroad.com

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Tags: media, prop 8, trial, video tapes

CA: During Prop 8 Trial, Plaintiffs Received Threats

Tuesday, April 5th, 2011

Prop 8 Plaintiffs The two plaintiffs in the Proposition 8 gay marriage case reportedly received numerous threatening phone calls during the trial last year.

According to the news magazine The Advocate, they may have come from Gregory Giusti, the man convicted of making threatening phone calls to Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi.

The Advocate reports that Sandra Stier and Kristin Perry, who filed suit challenging California’s ban on gay marriage, received more than a dozen messages at their Berkeley home in January when the Proposition 8 testimony was being heard.

Full Story from ABC7

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Tags: plaintiffs, prop 8, threats, trial

Anti Gay “Researcher”: Prop 8 Lost in Court Because They Didn’t Use My Work

Saturday, November 20th, 2010

Anti-gay bigot and first class fraud Paul Cameron says that the reason the bigots lost the Prop 8 case in California was because they didn’t use his “research” in their arguments. He claims:

“Judge Walker made the Prop 8 trial a ‘social-science-evidence-based case,’ in which a ‘scientifically proven sameness’ – in reality, a deception by the professional associations in support of gay rights – was legally recorded as “fact.” This strategy mimicked the professional associations in making the issues of gay rights and marriage political, rather than empirical – willing to dissemble to advance ‘the noble cause.’

“He put every assertion by the defenders of Proposition 8 to what might be considered ‘rigorous scientific test’ (including disregarding an expert witness because he had not published in peer-reviewed journals).”

Full Story from Science Blogs

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Tags: anti gay, Gay Marriage, marriage equality, paul cameron, prop 8, proposition 8, ruling, same sex marriage, trial

US: Supreme Court Will Not Order Destruction of Prop 8 Trial Video

Tuesday, October 5th, 2010

The Supreme Court on Monday ordered the 9th Circuit to dismiss as moot a dispute over the release of videotape from the trial overturning Proposition 8, California’s voter-approved ban on gay marriage.

Prop 8 supporters had sought to block the retention and release of trial video even to the parties, fearing it might eventually be released to the public.

The 9th Circuit refused to intervene, and the Supreme Court vacated and remanded, instructing the circuit court to dismiss the dispute as moot after the justices ruled 5-4 on Jan. 13 to block any broadcast of the trial to the general public.

Full Story from Courthouse News Service

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Tags: Gay Marriage, marriage equality, perry vs. schwarzenegger, prop 8, proposition 8, same sex marriage, trial, us supreme court, video