Today, in a 2–1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled against Proposition 8, the California ballot measure that defined marriage in the California constitution as one man and one woman. The appeals court decision upholds the decision of the lower court, which struck down Prop 8 as unconstitutional. According to the court of appeals, there was no “legitimate reason” for California voters to enact Prop 8. In contrast to the trial court, the appeals court decision bases its decision on very narrow grounds that might …
In the wake of Judge Vaughn Walker’s decision last month in Perry v. Schwarzenegger striking down the California constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman, legal scholars and analysts continue to weigh in on the ruling. The decision has now been stayed by a panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A briefing schedule has been set up, and the appeal, including arguments over issues of legal standing for Prop 8’s proponents, is scheduled for hearing this December. Meanwhile, authorities on various …
Judge Vaughn Walker’s decision to lift the stay on his ruling striking down California’s voter-approved Proposition 8 is, fortunately, not the last word on whether same-sex couples in the Golden State will be able to obtain marriage licenses while this case is under appeal. The appropriate panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has until August 18 to act on the request by attorneys defending this state constitutional amendment for a stay pending the conclusion of the Prop 8 appeal. In the interest of clarity and certainty about the …
This week in a federal district courtroom in San Francisco, the trial that could alter the future of the institution of marriage came to an end. The closing arguments featured prominent national attorneys seeking to answer 39 final questions framed by the presiding judge, Vaughn Walker. At issue is the contention of plaintiffs that Prop 8, a voter-approved constitutional amendment that was adopted in November 2008, violates the U.S. constitution. The National Organization for Marriage, whose California entity was one of the prime proponents of Prop 8, alongside the organization …
Last week, the evidentiary phase of the trial in Perry v. Schwarzenegger came to an end. Perry is the federal court lawsuit in California that claims, in effect, that the U.S. Constitution contains a right to same-sex marriage. Specifically, the lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the November 2008 amendment to the California constitution that effectively reversed a California high court decision redefining marriage to include homosexual unions. If the claims asserted in this lawsuit prevail, the 45 states that recognize marriage as the union of husband and wife …
On Monday, The New York Times carried an op-ed by Heritage Foundation scholar and former US Attorney General Ed Meese titled “Stacking the Deck Against Proposition 8.” In that piece, Mr. Meese criticized a series of pre-trial rulings issued by Judge Vaughn R. Walker in the landmark same-sex marriage case currently underway in federal court in San Francisco. One of those rulings involved Judge Walker’s controversial decision to broadcast the trial to other courthouses and post video recordings of the Prop 8 trial on the Internet. On Wednesday, the US …
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 late yesterday that a federal judge in San Francisco had acted improperly in altering longstanding rules barring the televising of federal court proceedings. As a result, the federal trial of Proposition 8, the state constitutional amendment on the definition of marriage adopted in November 2008 by California voters, will not be broadcast to the nation via YouTube, posting to the Internet, or any other medium. The ruling is a victory for proponents of the amendment, who argued that the presiding judge in the case, Vaughn …
The U.S. Supreme Court, with one justice writing in dissent, agreed today with attorneys who argued against the broadcasting and posting of the trial proceedings in Perry v. Schwarzenegger – the case challenging the constitutionality of California’s popularly approved Proposition 8 preserving marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The Court granted a temporary stay prohibiting any streaming video broadcast outside the courthouse. Presiding Judge Vaughn Walker had ruled last week that the proceedings in the case could be filmed and posted on YouTube after each day’s …
Today in San Francisco, U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker will begin presiding over Perry vs. Schwarzenegger, a case that could erase the will of California’s voters by finding Proposition 8′s refusal to recognize same-sex marriage as unconstitutional. But as Heritage Foundation Chairman of the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies and Ronald Reagan Attorney General Ed Meese explains in today’s New York Times, some of Judge Walker’s pre-trial rulings have already made history: But most disquieting for supporters of traditional marriage is a series of pretrial rulings issued by …
Although Miss North Carolina Kristen Dalton was crowned Miss USA on Sunday, it was not this portion of the nationally-broadcasted segment that emerged as the most “sparkling” moment. Instead, the buzz was sparked by a question posed by Perez Hilton, an openly gay celebrity gossip blogger and one of thirteen telecast judges on the panel. When asked by Hilton whether she thought every state should follow the example of Vermont and legalize same-sex marriage, Carrie Prejean, beauty queen and Miss USA 2009 representative from San Diego, California (that’s right—the Prop …
