The National Organization for Marriage put out a new video last week, and of course, it's full of lies about Prop 8. So let's go point-by-point through their claims, and explain why they're utterly wrong.
A growing number of Republicans are breaking with the party's traditional stance to publicly state their support for same-sex marriage, a shift strategists say stems as much from demographics as from the renewed focus on economics and the "tea party" movement.
A solid majority of adults younger than 30 - about six in 10 - support the right of gay and lesbian couples to legally wed, according to a...
This was apparently a week for reflection, as we peeked behind the curtains of some cutting-edge research this week, examining the social and psychological science that formed the basis of Judge Walker's decision. Check out this article (written by Stop8.org founder Matt Baume, BTW) that explains ...
A little more than half (54.1 percent) of respondents to the Argus-Courier's online poll Aug. 19, 2010 agree with Judge Vaughn Walker's opinion that struck down Proposition 8, the voter-approved initiative to ban same-sex marriage....
My colleague James Downie has assembled a fascinating timeline of Obama's statements on gay marriage over the past 14 years, stretching from 1996 to earlier this month, when the White House responded to a judge's ruling on Prop 8 by reiterating that it opposes same-sex marriage. What the timeline shows is a pattern that can only be described as illogical and cynical. Obama argues that he is again...
Now there is no reason to believe that California, either through the Langley Porter Clinic or anything else, has at any point in the past several decades attempted to conduct any scientific research into the causes and cures of homosexuality. But it's nice to know that they officially have given up.
But more importantly, this bill passed unanimously in the Senate (where it was sponsored by the n...
Do they think that because a federal trial judge in San Francisco declared Proposition 8 unconstitutional, they can just run into any federal district court and get an injunction against their state? Did they stop paying attention to the news and not realize that Judge Walker's decision is stayed pending appeal? And that Wyoming is not in the 9th Circuit, so even a positive ruling by the court o...
More than ten years ago, on July 3, 2003, HNN published "The Historians' Case Against Gay Discrimination," a fascinating brief prepared by prominent historians to support same-sex plaintiffs in the famous case Lawrence v. Texas (June 26, 2003), in which the United States Supreme Court struck down prohibitions against all private, adult consensual sex.
Many of the same arguments in that brief, pre...
Focus on the Family's Jenny Tyree has highlighted what she finds to be the strongest arguments from a recent Op-Ed penned by conservative personality Edwin Meese. So that being the case, we will now look at those same arguments, then proceed to obliterate them....
"The evidence shows conclusively that moral and religious views form the only basis for a belief that same-sex couples are different from opposite-sex couples," Walker wrote. "The evidence fatally undermines any purported state interest in treating couples differently."
It's the kind of ruling a scientist would love.
And that's no mere accident: while the case for Prop 8 is predicated on hypothe...
If elected, Meg Whitman says that she would defend Prop 8 -- but would she even be able to? No, says the Courage Campaign. Her inauguration would be in January, but the Ninth Circuit hearing is scheduled for December. ...
"She wouldn't be governor yet," Jacobs said. "The appeals court will decide before there would be a change of governor and attorney general."
UC Hastings College of the Law professor Rory Little said Whitman's ability to defend the proposition would hinge on several factors - the biggest of which, of course, is whether she becomes governor.
It would also depend on whether the 9th Circuit decides...
If Whitman or Cooley are elected, they definitely could submit amicus briefs setting forth their positions at any of these stages. There is precedent for newly-elected officials doing this after they take office when their predecessors did not appeal. It therefore matters significantly whether or not they are elected....
A CNN poll this month found that a narrow majority of Americans supported same-sex marriage -- the first poll to find majority support. Other poll results did not go that far, but still, on average, showed that support for gay marriage had risen to 45 percent or more (with the rest either opposed or undecided).
That's a big change from 1996, when Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act. At th...
About fifty members of the gay rights group San Diego Alliance for Marriage Equality (SAME) protested Proposition 8 by demanding that the country clerk issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples.
"We believe that county officials and the attorney general have the authority and obligation to allow marriage licenses to proceed based on both the federal court findings and that Prop 8 is unco...
Mr. Newsom acknowledged in an interview on Wednesday that he had made a choice to be less outspoken on same-sex marriage compared with past years. He said his new tone reflected how the debate had matured and was not a sign that he had changed his commitment to the issue.
"This movement has nothing to do with me; I'm just a small part of it," Mr. Newsom said. "This thing is at a completely differ...
Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, who's the Republican candidate for California Attorney General, would defend Proposition 8 in court if given the opportunity, says his campaign spokesman Kevin Spillane.
"The role of the attorney general is to defend the will of the people," says Spillane. "He would defend (Prop. 8) and appeal" U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling tha...
Over the last two years, states such as Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Iowa, as well as the District of Columbia have joined Massachusetts in providing its citizens marriage equality. Rhode Island is one of only two states in New England where same-sex marriage is prohibited, though Maine did pass an equality measure only to have it overturned by its voters last November. Now, for the first ...
In papers filed Tuesday, attorneys for two same-sex couples and the city of San Francisco asked the court to extend a deadline for seeking reimbursement from the losing side. In this case, that would be the groups that put the ban on the 2008 ballot.
Sponsors of Proposition 8 defended the ban in court after California's governor and attorney general refused to.
Lawyers familiar with scope of the...
Almost immediately after U.S. Federal District Judge Vaughn Walker handed down his decision declaring California's Proposition 8 unconstitutional, Matt Staver's Liberty Counsel, which is closely aligned with Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, blamed the Alliance Defense Fund for losing the case. As I said earlier, you can tell Staver was furious because they didn't get around to blaming it on ju...
The issue arises because Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown have refused to defend Prop. 8 in court. That was also the case in Arizona, where state officials refused to appeal a lower-court decision overturning a ballot initiative, and the measure's sponsors then sought to defend it themselves.
Writing for a unanimous court 13 years ago, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said s...
Maybe we should just let California be the Gay State. That's the latest thinking of some prominent red-state evangelicals, who fear that appealing California's recent same-sex marriage ruling to the Supreme Court could backfire, legalizing gay matrimony from sea to shining sea.
Last week, the case for signing over California to the Prince of Darkness was made on American Family Radio by David Bar...
"The practical effect of imposing the stay until at least December is to give the 9th Circuit an opportunity to review more carefully whether the proponents have standing to bring an appeal," adds UC Berkeley School of Law professor Joan Hollinger.
"The court wants to hear whether or not the proponents have a big enough horse in the race," says Daria Roithmayr, a professor at the Universi...
Backers of Proposition 8 this morning made one last-ditch plea to a federal appeals court to prevent same-sex couples from marrying in California until higher courts resolve their appeal of a federal judge's ruling striking down the state's ban on gay nuptials....
The judicial clock is ticking down towards Judge Vaughn Walker's Wednesday, August 18th, 5:00pm lift of the stay in the Federal Prop 8 Trial. In the event that the temporary stay is lifted and once again, same-sex couples are allowed to apply for a marriage license, the leadership of Equality Action Now and the Sacramento Gay and Lesbian Center will host Wedding Ceremonies on the West Steps of the...
As Walker explained Thursday, the defenders of Proposition 8 are not likely to prevail because they lack standing; also, it is impossible to see what "irreparable injury" will occur if there is not a stay of the injunction and same-sex couples are allowed to marry pending resolution of the appeal.
The result of all this is likely to be that gays and lesbians will be able to marry beginning Wednes...
Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel recently had to apologize to his employees and customers for donating $150,000 of company money to MN Forward, a political group supporting Republican Tom Emmer's gubernatorial campaign. Part of the reason that the contribution was so controversial is that Emmer is extremely anti-LGBT rights, whereas Target has tried to present an LGBT-friendly image. Now, the American...
Any number of analyses show Kennedy voting in the majority in more than 90 percent of cases, more than any other justice. He votes mostly with the conservative bloc. Frequently, he is the pivot around which the four other conservative justices swing, often writing the majority opinion in 5-4 decisions.
Kennedy, 72, is a Roman Catholic, like all the other conservative justices on the high court.
...
My guess is that in a case as newsworthy as this, the lead judge would prefer to convene the entire panel rather than make the decision himself. In any event, there could be a decision on the Emergency Motion within hours after the motion is filed, but it's more likely that it will take a day or two for the Judge(s) to rule.
We'll let you know if there is any news of a ruling....
"Judge Walker is not a dummy," said professor Michael Zamperini of Golden Gate University's school of law. "He knew if he lifted the stay they were going to go to the appeals court anyway. And if they had to do it in a rush, with people getting married and all that, the court just might feel more inclined to stop it so they could consider the case over these many years."
And yet, long-term strate...
The couple have been together for three years. When they had a chance to be married in 2008, they decided against it because they didn't want to rush things. Since then, they have exchanged rings and now consider themselves married. But they want to make it official, Mayhall said, for the sake of equality.
Both of them had been out of state this week, but they rushed back to Los Angeles Wednesday...
US District Judge Vaughn Walker refused Thursday to extend a stay - placed on his ruling that declared California's gay-marriage ban unconstitutional - beyond next week.
The decision clears the way for same-sex marriages to begin again in California on Aug. 18, barring intervention from the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Judge Walker did not immediately end the stay to give the appea...
Judge Walker decided to deny the motion to stay his decision overturning Prop 8. But at the same time he also issued a temporary stay until August 18th to allow the Ninth Circuit time to decide whether or not it wants to stay the case pending the appeal. This is not surprising, and it is done out of respect for the Ninth Circuit. Judge Walker is simply making the call that is his (that a stay shou...
Nearly half of all Americans think the Constitution provides same-sex couples the right to marry, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll.
Forty-nine percent of respondents think gay and lesbian couples have the constitutional right to get married and have their marriage recognized by law, while 51 percent say those rights do not exist.
Full results [pdf]
The gap widens dramati...
The attorneys for Protectmarriage.com, the group behind the Prop 8 campaign, have already notified the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals they intend to appeal Walker's decision. Yet there is some question as to whether they can indeed carry the fight to the appellate level.
Attorneys for the two same-sex couples who sued the state claiming Prop 8 violated their constitutional rights, as well as for th...
Judge Vaughn Walker, the federal judge who last week ruled to strike down Proposition 8, the California-voter mandated ban on same sex marriage, is repirtedly expected to rule by noon Thursday on whether same-sex marriages can resume, at least temporarily.
Shortly after Walker's ruling last week, he put in place a "stay," that is, a hold on the enforcement of his ruling allowing same sex marriage...
The NOM Tour Tracker - the important off shoot of the amazing Prop8TrialTracker - has been following the National Organization for Marriage's month-long-plus national bus tour where they've attracted only handfuls of supporters, while Freedom to Marry and local marriage equality groups have turned out hundreds to protest NOM's stops. See Freedom to Marry's map for past and future NOM events.
NOT ...
As Lambda Legal's Jon Davidson noted, there is some confusion over the appeals process. There may only be a small window of opportunity for same sex couples to marry if Judge Walker lifts the stay on his affirmative ruling before the defendant-interveners appeal to the 9th Circuit to impose a stay and stop or prohibit marriages while Walker's ruling is appealed - if the defendant-interveners have...
So where does this leave us? A strong indication from the Supreme Court that initiative proponents whose efforts result in the enactment of laws or constitutional amendments generally do not have standing to participate as parties in subsequent litigation concerning their constitutionality, and are even less likely to be found to have standing to appeal an adverse ruling on constitutionality if t...
Most of us were so swept up in anticipation of, then excitement over District Court Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling last Wednesday, Aug. 4, affirming the constitutional right of same sex couple to marry that we didn't notice that court also posted videos and documents presented as part of the Prop 8 trial. All of this material - including the actual courtroom testimony (transcripts of which are avai...
It's not all that surprising that Imperial County filed a Notice of Appeal. It is asking the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal to decide for itself whether or not the County has standing to appeal. As I discussed earlier, there's a decent chance that Judge Walker and the Ninth Circuit will find that the official proponents of Prop 8 do not have standing to appeal Judge Walker's decision. While the ...
The best argument that Prop 8 supporters can make is that they would be injured by the simple fact that California is not enforcing a law passed by the People. But the Supreme Court has held that "[an] asserted right to have the Government act in accordance with law is not sufficient, standing alone, to confer jurisdiction on a federal court." (Allen v. Wright, 468 U.S. 737, 754 (1984))
I think ...
Whew, well, it's been quite a couple of days, hasn't it?
Prop 8 has been found unconstitutional based on "overwhelming evidence", but that doesn't mean it's going away. While the proponents appeal his ruling, Judge Walker may allow the ban to stay i...
Gay marriage advocates are becoming increasingly frustrated with President Barack Obama.
Immediately following Wednesday's ruling that struck down California's gay marriage ban, known as Proposition 8, the White House issued a statement in support of the decision.
"The president has spoken out in opposition to Proposition 8 because it is divisive and discriminatory. He will continue to promote e...
Normally I wouldn't inflate your blood pressure by asking you to watch FOX News, but this clip is not only tolerable, it's kick-ass. Ted Olson gave a clinic on how to dismantle certain conservative legal arguments on Prop 8 yesterday on FOX News Sunday:...
David Boies, one of the lead attorneys for the plaintiff and Tony Perkins, the head of the Family Research Council discuss the California ruling on same sex marriage....
Were Barack Obama to have the opportunity to replace a conservative Justice with a liberal one, or an incoming Republican President in 2013 the reverse, that would probably be decisive for the issue, perhaps for many decades.
My best guess is that the Tea Party will largely continue to shirk the issue, but that the Republican Establishment will be fairly happy to engage it. The real battle, howev...
I think Judge Walker will deny the stay and force the 9th Circuit to start consideration of the appeal immediately. It is a safe bet that Alex Kozinsky and the judges in the 9th understand full well the stakes and intention of Walker; they are likely to move the case right along....
At least some legal experts said his lengthy recitation of the testimony could bolster his ruling during the appeals to come. Higher courts generally defer to trial judges' rulings on factual questions that stem from a trial, although they still could determine that he was wrong on the law.
John Eastman, a conservative scholar who supported Proposition 8, said Walker's analysis and detailed refer...
In anticipation of the ruling, Brown's group embarked on a 22-state tour to end this month in the District that is aimed at spreading the view that heterosexual marriage is the building block of society. The group has stepped up fundraising, Brown said, and expects to nearly double its budget to $12 million this year.
Polls show that Americans have become more accepting of gay marriage in recent ...
There's no question that Judge Walker, like any other judge, I'd imagine, likes his rulings to hold up on appeal. That's why he did two very specific things with the Prop 8 ruling. He established a rigorous fact pattern, because the appellate courts will have to deal with those facts in their opinions. And, he basically tailored his ruling with respect to precedent on cases decided by the one man ...
In his statement about the proposed stay of Judge Walker's ruling, Steve Cooley, the Republican candidate for California AG, is misrepresenting the earlier holding of the California Supreme Court when he says that the court "upheld Proposition 8 by a 6 to 1 vote and declared it to be constitutional."
In that first round of legal challenges to Proposition 8, the California Supreme Court di...
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown have filed motions calling for resumption of same-sex weddings in the state.
The officials filed the motions after U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker previously overturned Proposition 8, California's voter-approved gay marriage ban.
Resuming gay marriage "is consistent with Californias long history of treating all people and t...
Debra Saunders must have been absent on the day her Civics class taught the most important case ever decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, so let's take a walk back in time. In 1803, the Supreme Court decided Marbury v. Madison. This case articulated the Judiciary's power of "judicial review," the power to decide the constitutionality of the actions of the other two branches of government (a law pa...
An appeal hearing on California's Proposition 8 case will likely not be held until early 2011, according to a briefing schedule posted today by a federal appeals court in San Francisco.
Sponsors of the proposition are appealing a ruling in which U.S District Judge Vaughn Walker on Wednesday struck down the voter-approved same-sex marriage ban. A notice of appeal was filed minutes after Walker's r...
San Francisco's powerful civil rights organizations and Democratic leadership greeted Walker's nomination with howls of protest. They branded him hostile and "insensitive" to gay and lesbian rights because of his representation of the U.S. Olympic Committee in a lawsuit against the Gay Olympics over the use of the Olympics brand. The protests continued unabated for two years before Walker was fina...
Where to begin? There's just so much crazy that is genuinely difficult to choose just one nugget. Let's first start with the popular vote issue. I'm hesitant to bring this up again, because really? Really people?
Let's talk about this. Do we really want everything up for a popular vote? I guess it's easy to criticize when you are the one putting up other people's rights for a vote. But, flip t...
After U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker overturned the measure, he immediately issued a stay on his decision, which means it will not go into effect until appeals are filed. The stay goes until at least Friday, when there will be another hearing. During this hearing, Judge Walker will hear arguments and decide whether to extend the stay pending appeals. If he decides not to extend the sta...
The appeal was filed by Protect Marriage, a coalition of religious and conservative groups that sponsored Proposition 8 and wound up defending it after California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown refused.
Walker, meanwhile, said he would consider waiting for the 9th Circuit to render its decision before he makes his opinion final and requires the state to stop enforcing...
We always knew a favorable trial decision would be appealed probably all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, so the legal theories advanced by Judge Walker have limited value. But as Ronald Reagan famously said, "facts are stubborn things" -- and the trial court's findings of fact and rulings on credibility are here to stay, no matter what Scalia, Thomas, Roberts or Alito think about (as Stephe...
Until Wednesday, the thousands of same-sex couples who have married did so because a state judge or Legislature allowed them to. The nation's most fundamental guarantees of freedom, set out in the Constitution, were not part of the equation. That has changed with the historic decision by a federal judge in California, Vaughn Walker, that said his state's ban on same-sex marriage violated the 14th ...
The Proposition 8 case on which the Ninth Circuit's Judge Vaughn Walker ruled Wednesday was pushed by two gentiles with a hunger for media attention, lawyers with huge egos who overrode the considered judgment of major figures in the Jewish legal establishment, thinkers who feared exactly what we anticipate: the Supreme Court will uphold Prop. 8 and the core civil rights of Californians and all Am...
Send a thank you note that summarizes what this decision means to you. Whether or not you live in California, and whether you identify as LGBTQ or a straight ally, this decision gave more dignity to all of us. And, it's important to celebrate our wins and personalize them. For me, as I look at my two children, I smile a little bit deeper today -- knowing that we are one step closer to winning this...
The Proposition 8 case on which the Ninth Circuit's Judge Vaughn Walker ruled Wednesday was pushed by two straight guys with a hunger for media attention, lawyers with huge egos who overrode the considered judgment of major figures in the gay legal establishment, thinkers who feared exactly what we anticipate: the Supreme Court will uphold Prop. 8 and the core civil rights of Californians and all ...
A jubilant crowd took to the streets in San Francisco on Wednesday night to cheer Chief U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker's decision that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.
Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, addressed a crowd of around 800 people from the steps of City Hall. "The last time I stood on these steps, we were in pain because Prop 8 had ju...
Yesterday's federal judge overturned California's statewide initiative banning same-sex marriage was probably San Francisco's biggest story -- our coverage of the decision was pretty much the only thing anyone seemed to read on the Appeal yesterday, and the covers of the print Examiner and Chronicle were dominated by the story.
We've rounded up all the local coverage of the decision and reaction...
"The President has spoken out in opposition to Proposition 8 because it is divisive and discriminatory. He will continue to promote equality for LGBT Americans."...
In May 2009, when we learned Chad Griffin had lined up Ted Olson and David Boies to argue the shit out of Prop 8's unconstitutionality, America and California's Gay Inc. groups were furious. Now they're so happy!
HRC joined Freedom to Marry, ACLU, Lamda Legal, GLAAD, Victory Fund, Log Cabin Republicans, and PFLAG in denouncing the Perry v. Schwarzenegger lawsuit, saying in an open letter, "Rathe...
Judge Vaughn R. Walker is not Anthony Kennedy. But when the chips are down, he certainly knows how to write like him. I count--in his opinion today--seven citations to Justice Kennedy's 1996 opinion in Romer v. Evans (striking down an anti-gay Colorado ballot initiative) and eight citations to his 2003 decision in Lawrence v. Texas (striking down Texas' gay-sodomy law). In a stunning decision thi...
Most of the decision (the first 109 pages) is the "factual findings." This is crucial, and here's why. On appeal, Judge Walker's conclusions of law are basically irrelevant. Questions of law are decided fresh on appeal, and the trial court's thoughts on the law are entitled to no deference. On the other hand, only a trial court can make factual findings. A Court of Appeal must give great defe...
Newt Gingrich, who believes in the sanctity of marriage between on man and three consecutive women, warns that this should be another knock against confirming Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court:...
Walker rejected the defendants' argument that plaintiffs were asking for the court to recognize some new right of same-sex marriage.
"Plaintiffs do not seek recognition of a new right," he wrote. "To characterize plaintiffs' objective as 'the right to same-sex marriage' would suggest that plaintiffs seek something different from what opposite-sex couples across the state enjoy -- namely, marriage...
This is hilarious. Matt Staver's Liberty Counsel, which is closely aligned with Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, issued a press release blaming the Prop 8 decision on the Alliance Defense Fund:...
We have plans to go to California as soon as possible and make our marriage legal," said Salt Lake City resident Jeff Key, who, on Wednesday, celebrated not only the ruling but the three-year-anniversary of his nonlegal wedding with his partner, Adam Nelson. "I'm feeling pretty proud to be an American right now."
In fact, Key knelt on one knee at a Capitol Hill rally Wednesday evening and asked N...
In San Francisco's Castro neighborhood, customers at Harvey's bar checked their mobile phones and kept an eye on local newscasts for updates throughout the afternoon.
Yet when word finally arrived, the response was tempered. The ruling faces years of legal appeals, and for some, it was too soon to celebrate.
"You could get happy about it, but we've been happy before and we got let down," said Mi...
Proposition 8 cannot withstand any level of scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause, as excluding same-sex couples from marriage is simply not rationally related to a legitimate state interest.
Rather, the evidence shows that Proposition 8 harms the state's interest in equality, because it mandates that men and women be treated differently based only on antiquated and discredited notions of ge...
Walker's opinion "reads as solid and careful work. I imagine it was written primarily for one pair of eyes - Justice Kennedy's," said Rick Hasen, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
Margaret Russell, a Santa Clara University law professor, said Walker's conclusion that Prop. 8 was based on moral disapproval of gays and lesbians was reminiscent of Kennedy's 1996 ruling in a Colorado c...
Proposition 8 is unconstitutional - but don't start ringing the wedding bells yet.
In a sweeping 136-page decision, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Vaughn Walker ruled Wednesday that California's ban on same-sex marriage violates the United States Constitution. The successful federal challenge was brought by attorneys Theodore Olson and David Boies, in a case known as Perry v. Schwarzenegger.
Co...
Heads-up for Thursday: Paul Hogarth will be posting an analysis of the decision first thing in the morning and Adam Bink will be back to take the reins on the Prop 8 Trial Tracker as well as the NOMTourTracker.com, as Maggie Gallagher, Brian Brown and NOM pull into St. Louis, Missouri for their next tour stop, now in full Red Dawn mode....
The federal court announced today that it will release its decision in the American Foundation for Equal Right's landmark case, Perry v. Schwarzenegger, on Wednesday. Text "EQUAL" to 69866 to get a text message with the official decision on your mobile phone the moment the court releases its decision, or sign-up for an email alert at equalrightsfoundation.org. Join AFER on its Web site to watch a ...
Prop. 8 advocates' appeal to parents could have been effectively countered by an immediate rebutal through TV ads, the study says. Same-sex marriage proponents need to be "preempting and rebutting rather than avoiding attacks that exploit anti-gay prejudice," the study says.
"to win, we need to understand why we have lost so many times," said David Fleisher, the study's author. "The data in this ...
Among the report's "Top Ten Recommendations" is the observation that it is crucial to "Counter Anti-Gay Prejudice." "We must develop effective arguments to keep voters from being misled by false and defamatory allegations of harm to children historically used to instill fear in voters," the report states. "In Prop 8, our base of supporters shrank in the final six weeks when the ads exploiting prej...
A lot of California politicos have been waiting for a report on Prop 8 by David Fleischer for about a year. It's finally out - and it's 511-pages long. He wrote about it in Tuesday's LA Times. And he's set up a very useful website where you can read the report or just sections, as well as see supplemental material. There's also a conference call with reporters so a number of us will be writing abo...
The numbers are staggering. In the last six weeks, when both sides saturated the airwaves with television ads, more than 687,000 voters changed their minds and decided to oppose same-sex marriage. More than 500,000 of those, the data suggest, were parents with children under 18 living at home. Because the proposition passed by 600,000 votes, this shift alone more than handed victory to proponents....
In the wake of the passage of Prop 8, there have been countless comments placing the blame at the feet of homophobic black and Latino voters, and more pointedly, black voters. Even after Nate Silver at fivethirtyeight.com debunked this in post-mortem analysis, one of the lessons also learned -- and this isn't an incompatible conclusion -- is that there wasn't enough face-to-face outreach to minori...
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Mentoring Project has just released a massive report which analyzes more than 10,000 pages of unreleased data from the California Prop 8 campaign. The report's author and project founder, Dave Fleischer, concludes that many common conceptions of why the No on 8 campaign lost the November 2008 ballot measure are factually wrong. In particular, Fleis...
An appeal to the Supreme Court on the case is all but guaranteed by the losing side, but it would go first to the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco, considered the most liberal federal appeals court.
An issue the defendants could use if the law is overturned is what legal standard was applied in the case.
Maria Blanco, the executive director of the Chief Justice Earl Warren Inst...
Okay, conspiracy theorists, get this. The anti-gay NOM launched a bus tour awhile back, featuring rallies at various community areas. The rallies have been so sparsely attended that a lot of folks have wondered why NOM is doing this, and the HRC thinks they have an answer: they're trying to bait LGBTs into angrily counter-protesting, so the anti-gays can bolster their claims about being oppressed ...
Unable to defend Prop. 8 on the merits, defendants argued that it is protected from constitutional challenge because it was passed by 52 percent of California voters. But if we were prepared to leave minority rights up to a majority vote, there would be no need for a constitution - and many state laws discriminating based on race, sex and religion would plague us all.
Defenders of Prop. 8 also s...
