New Archbishop of San Francisco Defends Stance Against Same-Sex Marriage

Bernard Schlager, executive director of the Center for Gay and Lesbian Studies in Religion and Ministry at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, told Laird, "I think we know a good bit about what he will do," said Schlager, himself a Roman Catholic. "He sees same-sex marriage as a profound moral threat." Schlager said that the only ministry to gays and lesbians that Cordileone supports is a ...

KQED • Aug 9, 2012

Prop 8 Filing Tomorrow Could Be 9th Circuit's Decision on Rehearing Case En Banc

KQED's Scott Shafer said this is almost surely the decision on whether to rehear the case en banc. An en banc panel is made up of 11 judges, chosen at random from the circuit. If the 9th Circuit denies the request, Prop 8 supporters will almost certainly ask the United States Supreme Court to hear the case....

KQED • Jun 4, 2012

Vaughn Walker Replaces Prop 8 Video With Nuremberg Trial For Legal Presentation

Although Judge Vaughn Walker informed the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last week that he was planning to use the excerpt from the Prop. 8 trial again this week in a talk at Gonzaga University Law School, a spokeswoman now tells me the retired jurist has decided not to. Instead, Walker will show tapes from the Nuremberg trials which she says "he feels make a tremendously strong statement about tra...

KQED • Apr 21, 2011

The Cross-Examination Clip Prop 8 Proponents Didn't Want Vaughn Walker to Show

The clip shows attorney plaintiffs' David Boies cross-examining Claremont-McKenna political science professor Kenneth Miller on whether Prop. 8 meets his definition of "official" or state sanctioned discrimination. It is not a particularly flattering clip, as it shows Boies getting Miller to acknowledge that laws against same sex marriage discriminate against gay and lesbian couples....

KQED • Apr 16, 2011

Interview: California Supreme Court Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye on Proposition 8

Cantil-Sakauye addressed the question of standing, which the Ninth Circuit federal appeals court handed to the California justices to decide. She also defended the state court's scheduling of the case, the expedited timeline of which she called "unprecedented," despite the request of anti-Prop 8 lawyers for an even faster resolution. And she addressed a frequent point of contention: whether judges...

KQED • Mar 30, 2011

New Spat Over Standing in Proposition 8 Case

In their response filing today, attorney Theodore Olson writes: "No county clerk has any legally protected interest in taking sides over what the marriage laws say; the interpretation of those laws belongs to state officials, and the clerk's only interest is to follow the State's directive in applying those laws." He goes on to say that in any case, Storey's motion comes too late anyway since "the...

KQED • Mar 8, 2011

California Supreme Court Says Prop 8 Case Already Being Fast-Tracked

State Supreme Court spokeswoman Lynn Holton points out that although the court rejected the expedited timeline, "... the court in fact has already expedited the Prop. 8 case by setting a special briefing schedule and oral arguments in September. Although September may seem like a long way away for arguments, it's actually earlier than the court would normally schedule them in a case accepted for r...

KQED • Mar 4, 2011

Proposition 8 Lawsuit: Unintended Legal Consequences?

What happens if the court decides neither Prop. 8 backers nor Imperial County have standing to appeal? Some legal experts say the Court could simply dismiss the appeal and let Judge Walker's decision stand as is. But UC Davis Law Professor Vikram Amar has a very different take. He thinks this could essentially erase the lower court decision leading to a default judgment in favor of the two same se...

KQED • Nov 20, 2010

Lots of "friends" for and against Prop. 8

A legal tsunami of Amicus curiae or "friend of the court" briefs are washing over the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, where a three-judge panel will consider Judge Vaugh Walker's August decision striking down Prop. 8. A quick scan of the more-than 100 briefs that streamed in over the past week indicate a very organized effort by conservative groups to sway the judges. Family Policy Councils from a r...

KQED • Sep 29, 2010

On Both Sides of Same-Sex Marriage Debate, Awaiting a Prop 8 Verdict

It's been a long, slow summer for those waiting for a verdict in the legal dispute over Proposition 8. Californians went to the polls and voted Proposition 8 into law, overturning a state Supreme Court decision that said gays have a constitutional right to marry. We check in with Scott Shafer of KQED who has attended nearly every day of the trial. In addition to being the daily host of the Califo...

KQED • Jul 24, 2010

Polls vs. Reality

You could excuse supporters of gay marriage for doing a double take at the findings of a just-released Field Poll. The survey shows 51% of registered voters supporting same sex unions and 42% opposed. 7% had no opinion. Those are the exact same numbers Field found in May of 2008 ... a few months before voters banned same sex marriage by passing Prop. 8 52-48%. What gives? Is the poll inaccurate? ...

KQED • Jul 20, 2010