The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the challenge to California’s Proposition 8 on March 26 and the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) on March 27. With the arguments fast approaching, the parties’ briefs and amicus curiae briefs have started to trickle in—tackling the various issues raised in these …
The Supreme Court announced today that it will hear cases dealing with the definition of marriage during its current term. The Court will consider challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act, passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in Congress and signed by President Clinton, and Proposition 8, California’s constitutional amendment …
It was no surprise today that the most liberal (and most-overturned) federal appeals court in the nation, the Ninth Circuit, refused a request for a rehearing by the entire court of the decision by a three-judge panel that found California’s Proposition 8 unconstitutional. This means that the proponents of Proposition …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …