A stay has been filed at the Ninth Circuit, set to expire on March 5. The order suggests that the Hawaii Family Forum can ask for an extension of the stay before it expires. A decision in the two Supreme Court cases won't be reached by March 5, indeed briefing may not even be completed by that date. That makes it more likely we will see additional action before the current stay expires....
Cozen O'Connor v. Tobits, a case in district court in Pennsylvania that involves Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act and its impact on ERISA, has been suspended by the federal judge in the case.
Filed by the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the case has been fully briefed for months, and awaiting a decision on the merits by the district court. The order notes that, "this matter is placed o...
The Second Circuit has scheduled the appellants' opening brief in its appeal in Pedersen v. OPM, challenging Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act. The order says that the brief will be filed November 27....
The three judges who will hear oral arguments in new York next Thursday, September 27, are Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs, Senior Judge Chester Straub and Judge Christopher Droney, who were appointed by Presidents George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, respectively.
...
In last night's elections, marriage equality supporters gained ground in the House primaries, but flipped only one seat in the Senate primaries, that of Michael Pinga, a two-term Senator who lost to pro-marriage equality challenger Adam Satchell. The most significant Senate primary race took place between Senate Judiciary chairman Michael McCaffrey and openly gay challenger Laura Pisaturo-the Jud...
Section 3 of DOMA was struck down in Pedersen v. Office of Personnel Management, a case filed in federal district court in Connecticut. The decision came after the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG), who is defending the law, asked the judge to stay the proceedings in the case in light of Windsor v. USA, a case that's currently on appeal to the Second Circuit. The judge denied the request.
...
57% of Maryland voters say they're likely to vote for the new marriage law this fall, compared to only 37% who are opposed. That 20 point margin of passage represents a 12 point shift from an identical PPP survey in early March, which found it ahead by a closer 52/44 margin....
Today in Maine, we're delivering thousands of signatures to Sen. Collins and meeting with her and her staff to discuss repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act. While Sen. Collins hasn't been an outspoken champion of equality, she has taken significant steps to supporting the LGBT community, and we hope she'll consider the hardships her constituents are suffering in Maine as a result of DOMA....
Today, the 9th Circuit agreed to consolidate the main appeal of Judge Walker's ruling striking down Proposition 8 with the proponents' appeal of Judge Ware's decision not to vacate that ruling on the grounds that Judge Walker did not disclose before the trial that he is in a long term relationship with a man.
...
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
70 employers and civics organizations including Google, Starbucks, Zipcar, Stonyfield Farms, Time Warner Cable, and more
Coalition of House members opposed to DOMA
Family law professors
Historians
LGBT civil rights organizations
Jewish Social Policy Action Network
Family and child welfare professors
Anti-Defamation League et al
The American Psyc...
Today, the U.S. House of Representatives filed a motion to intervene in Gill v. Office of Personnel Management the multi-plaintiff challenge to Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), filed by Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) with co-counsel Foley Hoag LLP, Sullivan & Worcester and Jenner & Block in March 2009. ...
Today, we got word, confirmed by Senate sources, that Sen. Sherrod Brown will co-sponsor Sen. Feinstein's legislation, the "Respect for Marriage Act", to repeal DOMA. A longtime supporter of LGBT equality, Sen. Brown is one of two Senators who voted against DOMA while serving in the House of Representatives in 1996, the other being Sen. Bernie Sanders (and one of just eight Senators serving curren...
An initiative's official proponents have a great interest in the validity of a successful measure, but a limited role in California's initiative process.Our law does not protect their post-adoption interest by giving proponents the authority to represent the state's interest against a challenge to the validity of a measure that has become state law. And our law does not afford official proponents ...
Yesterday, Courage Campaign, Progress New Mexico and Democracy for New Mexico members asked Sens. Bingaman and Udall to co-sponsor DOMA repeal. They support would make them the 23rd and 24th Senators to support Sen. Feinstein's bill.
Last week, over 1,000 Courage members in Wisconsin wrote to Sen. Kohl, asking him to become the 10th vote we need to pass DOMA repeal through the Senate Judiciary Co...
Arguing, oddly, that plaintiffs have no use for the recordings, and citing the City/County of San Francisco brief to make this point:
Appellees ask in the alternative that they be allowed to retain theircopies of the trial recordings. Opp. 10-11. But now that the trial is over and the appeal has been briefed and argued to this Court, there is no reason to anticipate that Appellees will need a...
When we introduced this bill with Sen. Feinstein, we started at 8 votes in the Senate Judiciary Committee and 19 Senators in support overall. Since then we targeted and picked up Sen. Klobuchar (D-MN), the story of which I detailed here. We then moved onto Sen. Kohl and asked our members to tell him to support DOMA repeal, and why it was so important to them -- especially if they voted for, volun...
Josh and Henry are a legally married gay couple about to be torn apart unless Secretary Napolitano does something. Henry, an immigration from Venezuela whose visa has expired, is married to Josh and residing in Connecticut, and because of DOMA, Josh does not have an expedited visa process. Courage Campaign and AllOut's members are asking Secretary Napolitano to put a moratorium on deportations unt...
10 votes are required to pass legislation from the Senate Judiciary Committee. With Sen. Klobuchar now onboard with the bill and 8 other Democrats on the committee who are co-sponsors of the bill, Sen. Kohl's support would give our movement the votes we need to pass repeal... before the hearings even start....
This morning, Courage Campaign and veteran LGBT activist Cleve Jones are partnering to launch a 50-state network of volunteers committed to repealing DOMA.
As I've written here, we are just one vote shy of the votes needed to pass DOMA repeal in the Senate Judiciary Committee. As Cleve wrote to our members this morning, what we will need to find the rest of the votes in both houses is volunteers ...
Last week, the Courage Campaign noted that Klobuchar was one of two Democratic senators who hadn't signed on to the DOMA repeal bill (the other is Wisconsin's Herb Kohl) and that her office stated that she had not taken a position on the bill. That prompted OutFront Minnesota, the state's largest LGBT advocacy group, to initiate a campaign urging constituents to call on her to support the repeal....
The 9th Circuit decided that six months, likely more, to force couples to wait while the California Supreme Court drags its feet over summer recess, is acceptable. Including couples like Ed and Derence:
But I say this because there are already a lot of nay-sayers who say don't bother introducing legislation, Republicans control the House, it will never get to the President's desk, yadda yadda yadda. To them I say it is a BFD if repeal passes the Senate Judiciary Committee this cycle, a goal Sen. Feinstein articulated her plans to achieve at yesterday's press conference. That will make headlines a...
She and Brian are far more concerned with dividing and conquering than accuracy or unity. More concerned with spinning false, cover-providing narratives than focusing on the merits of equal protection under the constitution....
There will also undoubtedly be a debate about whether the state could design some institution other than marriage. We believe that any attempt to create a separate set of rules for our families will be far more complicated than ending the exclusion of our families from marriage and inevitably lead to unequal treatment. In the decade since civil unions were first created, this belief has been borne...
This morning, Ted Olson and David Boies on behalf of the American Foundation for Equal Rights announced they are filing a request with the California Supreme Court to expedite the Perry v. Schwarzenegger (Prop 8) case and hear oral arguments by the end of May, before summer recess. They are also filing a "Motion to Vacate Stay Pending Appeal" with the 9th Circuit to lift the stay while the Califor...
Today, we're announcing the dates and locations of our Camp Courage trainings in the state, in partnership with Granite State Progress. See our e-mail below. If you are in the state, please join us! And if you have friends in the state, send them the details. These are the tools to start doing the hard work of protecting hard-won equality....
Are You Kidding?
This is just two days - two days! - after NOM quoted a Catholic Bishop who called same-sex marriage "the modern day evil works of Satan."
Who distorted the Bible to say God slaughters entire cities for homosexuality.
Who said - one day after the shooting of Rep. Giffords: "In this battle, there is no neutrality, no demilitarized zone."
Really NOM, you don't think anti-gay elim...
The local chapter of the National Organization for Marriage is launching a $100,000 TV advertising campaign aimed at defeating the legalization of same-sex marriage in Rhode Island.
The first TV ad scheduled for airing on Tuesday will challenge "Governor Lincoln Chaffee's claim to have a mandate to redefine marriage," according to a news release issued by the group that misspelled new Governor Li...
Running the numbers, this means that 3 wealthy donors contributed 68% of their total donations; 4 donors gave 73% and 5 donors gave 75%.
These figures reinforce what we and others (Fred Karger) have been saying: the National Organization for Marriage does not represent some sizeable (or even small) grassroots constituency. The only "constituency" they represent is that of a few anti-gay folks who...
At Courage Campaign, we've been paying attention to the issue and making plans since it became clear this might come up. To that end, over the last several weeks, myself, Arisha, Rick, and everyone here have been talking to leading freedom to marry activists on the ground, allied state legislators, and other folks. But while we have been playing it close to the vest (which is also why I'm not writ...
A further reading of the document suggests that the 9th Circuit is ready to rule that Prop 8 proponents DO have standing to appeal. In turn, that would enable the 9th Circuit to decide whether Prop 8 is a violation of the 14th Amendment (and obviously it is), a decision that would have major ramifications across California and the country....
Shannon and Chris are going to get to as many different questions from different people as possible. If you have a follow-up question to one of their responses, or a different take on something, whether as a response to your question or someone else's, please leave a comment with the question/response, and time permitting he will go back through to get to as many follow-up questions/comments as po...
In the questioning of David Boies, Judge Smith (the lone Republican appointee on the panel), asked him whether the failure to defend Prop 8 was a "nullification" of the efforts of the proponents and the choice of the voters in a way that was akin to a "veto" by the elected state leaders. Of course, a veto of an initiative is not allowed under the Constitution. So, conflict? (Here's where I'm heari...
C-SPAN applied to televise live the case captioned above, scheduled to be heard in San Francisco, on December 6, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. C-SPAN's request to televise live is GRANTED. A maximum of two (2) video cameras will be permitted in the courtroom. C-SPAN will serve as the pool-feed for all media organizations that submit an application....
As Eden reported yesterday, despite spending over $5 million on right wing, anti-gay candidates, the so-called "National Organization For Marriage" had little success at the ballot box on Tuesday. NOM's dismal showing on Tuesday further underscores how out of touch NOM is with mainstream America.
Not only was NOM's support less than likely to lead to election, but for many candidates, NOM's suppo...
"Fourteen times the Supreme Court has stated that marriage is a fundamental right of all individuals. This case tests the proposition whether the gay and lesbian Americans among us should be counted as 'persons' under the 14th Amendment, or whether they constitute a permanent underclass ineligible for protection under that cornerstone of our Constitution," attorneys Theodore B. Olson and David Boi...
In short, there's no principled way of excluding only our unions from the right to marry. It's precisely for that reason that courts have come to recognize that what really lies at the bottom of the opposition is a kind of natural law argument that, on the most basic level, reduces to: "Ick!"...
NOM has filed an amicus brief with the 9th Circuit arguing for Prop 8. They call it "dynamite." I call it a mess. I'll leave the legal analysis to the lawyers, but I have to point out some of the worst bits of logic or my head will explode (hey, maybe that's why it's "dynamite")....
This morning, the Human Rights Campaign and Courage Campaign are launching a new website -- www.NOMexposed.org -- that breaks open the cover on NOM's shady activities and lets the sun shine in where NOM doesn't want to see it. It's an important way to expose the worst of NOM to the public....
From a 30,000 foot view, there is one theme to their substantive arguments: the trial didn't happen. Oh, sure they acknowledge that it physically happened, but the evidence that was presented there, wasn't convincing, the decisions all wrong. You think there was evidence that Prop 8 was discriminatory? No, not really. You think there was evidence that showed Prop 8 harmed gays and lesbians? No, no...
In the end, we can think of the standing issue like this: the Proponents are a square peg that the Ninth Circuit has to fit somewhere. The Ninth Circuit may, as the Proponents argue, try to shove that square peg into the round hole that is Karcher by finding that the Proponents are similar to the Speaker of the New Jersey Assembly who was expressly authorized by a New Jersey statute to defend the ...
Chris Geidner at MetroWeekly writes that Deputy Attorney General Tamar Pachter, responding for AG Brown, said in her letter that the Pacific Justice Institute's effort on behalf of Pastor Joshua Beckley "is too little, too late."
Pachter concluded:
It is within the Attorney General's discretion to determine that it is or that it is not appropriate to pursue an appeal. In Perry, given th...
With California laying off teachers, police and firefighters amidst an unprecedented budget crisis, it is the height of hypocrisy for so called 'conservatives' to demand that California taxpayers foot the bill to defend a discriminatory law that has already been declared unconstitutional in federal court....
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 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....
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 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...
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 ...
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:...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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 ...
Check out the news from the South Bend City Council meeting. Meanwhile, Bil Browning, founder of the Bilerico Project, was also in Indianapolis today. He posted the following on Bilerico and gave us permission to cross-post it on NOMTourTracker.com. Check out the sickening sign that NOM supporter Larry Adams created with two nooses as "the solution to gay marriage." Also, watch the interview that...
Now, in practical terms, what does this mean? Well, say you are a couple where one partner earns substantially more than the other. You'll have noticed that your California tax bills went down with community property. Now the same will apply to the federal government. For example, say "Adam" earns $50,000 as a public school teacher. His husband "Bill" earns $150,000 as a investment hot-shot or som...
Will Judge Tauro's decision be appealed? Everyone expects it to, just as we presume Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling on Prop 8 - which we anticipate any day now - to be as well. The right-wingers at NOM even went so far as to pray "with God's help" there will be five U.S. Supreme Court justices to uphold Prop 8, and their press release over the DOMA ruling yesterday was equally hysterical. Expect this...
Well, unfortunately, this federal court decision really doesn't affect us at all. In theory, the ruling only covers Massachusetts for the time being. The case was brought on behalf of the state, and unless and until it moves up through the 1st Circuit and possibly to the Supreme Court, the case only has persuasive precedential value. For now, DOMA is still valid in California.
That being said, th...
As we await the ruling from Judge Vaughn Walker on Perry v. Schwarzenegger, we just received word about a decision in two marriage equality suits. A federal judge in Massachusetts just ruled that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal law passed in 1996 that bars federal recognition of same-sex marriage and enables states to withhold recognition of same-sex marriages performed in ot...
Rauch makes it sound like the desire to have the US Supreme Court step in and enforce the Constitution when a state is ignoring it is somehow "absolutist" or undermines the courts. This is a ridiculous claim which flies in the face of nearly 200 years of judicial precedent. Going all the way back to 1819 and the case McCulloch v. Maryland, the US Supreme Court has held that the Constitution is sup...
Boutrous is arguing that this case further buttressed several fundamental arguments they are making, that sexual orientation is immutable and that the LGBTs are a class that can be protected.
It will be interesting to see what if anything the defendants send to Judge Walker about Christian Legal Society v. Martinez....
Q: Is this the case that will go to the Supreme Court?
O: I believe it is. It is California. There is no other case in federal court that challenges a state. Whether or not we win or lose, we will appeal, I cannot imagine the other side won't. Someone will bring this to the Supreme Court....
I've been trying to keep abreast of the closing arguments, hitting refresh on several different websites. Through all of this, I have tried to at least, on occasion, take a step back to be as objective as possible. I was always something of a skeptic. After all, much of our judiciary has been appointed by Republicans. It just seemed like the logical conclusion of all this was some sort of temporar...
To summarize the plaintiffs position a little bit, what they are saying is that they believe that a) gays and lesbians are/should be a suspect class and that b) the proponents must prove their case accordingly. Now, I should point out that in In re Marriage Cases, the 2008 decision that made my marriage possible, the California Supreme Court said that sexual orientation is a suspect class under th...
Both sides turned their homework in early. They each submitted written responses to Judge Walker's 29 questions in advance of tomorrow's closing arguments. They also addressed all of the questions, even though some were directed just at the proponents.
Here are the responses from the good guys....
Later this summer, we'll offer you the opportunity to give your own testimony. Once you see what happened in court, you can tell your friends and the American public your own story. How has discrimination affected you? What happened when you went to your wedding (we want everyone to tell this story, straight, gay, bi, lesbian and transgendered)? What did your friends think? What do your friends th...
Chris Dusseult does not believe that Judge Walker will strike Dr. Tam's testimony and expects he will rule in their favor.
Ted Olson repeatedly made the point that when minority's civil rights are voted upon they often lose and that is exactly why we have the court system as a check on those votes.
Olson also was emphatic about the importance of talking about the trial. The more conversations pe...
Today, Judge Vaughn Walker delivered a series of 29 questions (12 to plaintiffs, 12 to Prop 8 supporters, and 15 to both) that will guide the Closing Statements. You can read them all here. "What follows is by no means an exhaustive list of questions," he writes, "but is intended simply to assist the parties in focusing their closing arguments."
But what some of them reveal is where the Judge is ...
This is bizarre, yet somehow unsurprising. David Blankenhorn, star witness for the defense, who was dismantled by Boies on the stand penned a letter-to-the-editor, kvetching about being tied to George Rekers. Blankenhorn swore that he cross his heart, hope to die, never read any of Rekers' works....
Regrettably, we cannot yet rely upon the courts to do the right thing, although this case is the best shot we've ever had. So what is to be done?
The answer is pretty straightforward: spend at least $4 million--a tenth or so of the money folks will be asked to shell out for a 2012 California measure--to run a national campaign to change the way people think. The trial gave us the skeleton for suc...
There was some confusion earlier this week over this issue, when the AP jumped the gun and said Walker had decided on the issue. However, the only thing that changed was a noticed was posted to the court's website that trial would not be broadcast outside of the courtroom. We weren't about to give up so we penned the letter. The letter includes the following:...
Well this is a bummer, but unsurprising. AP:
Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker issued a notice Tuesday stating that the final arguments scheduled for June 16 will not be transmitted beyond the San Francisco courthouse where he is hearing the case....
Of course, it's nice to rainbow wash the Bush administration's hateful efforts by throwing Laura Bush out there as a symbol of moderation. However, when it comes down to it, George W Bush and Karl Rove cynically used our personal lives as a way to scare voters. And meanwhile, as one Republican in Alabama is busy denying that he ever believed in evolution, don't expect that the days of our communit...
Today is a big day. In a court in Boston, attorneys will begin the first serious challenge to the so-called "Defense of Marriage Act." This lawsuit focuses only on Section 3 of DOMA, the part that blocks the federal government from recognizing the legal marriages of same-sex couples, in this case under Massachusetts law....
But besides setting a date for closing arguments, Judge Walker set a date for the defense counsel to submit their motion to suppress at least part of Dr. Tam's testimony. As you recall, Dr. Tam was the right-wing San Francisco minister who believed that his kids will turn gay if marriage equality was allowed to remain. We'll find out on May 7th how much of the testimony they want stricken from t...
Jurisdiction, which basically answers the question of whether the court has authority over the case, is a threshold question. That is, if there is no jurisdiction, then your substantive arguments are simply not heard. That's what happened in this case, the 9th Circuit basically said you'll have to wait on this. The next move is up to EQCA and ACLU....
The key part of this is relevancy. There are a number of different standards for relevancy, but they are all generally lenient, or at least far more lenient that standards for evidence at trial. That being said, even by these more lenient standards, this is a big reach. And frankly, all of the parties know that, but the Yes on 8 team is trying its best to get as much information as possible for fu...
We applaud the dedication of grassroots activists who organized across the state this year to try to bring California law into compliance with the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. No American should have to wait one minute for equality, especially when it comes to love. That's why the Courage Campaign's focus is on the Proposition 8 federal trial -- and it's why this trial is so important....
The Courage Campaign's Rick Jacobs today filed a complaint with the California Fair Political Practices Commission today against Andy Pugno, one of the key figures behind the effort to ban same-sex marriage in California.
The complaint, which is included below as a Scribd embed, alleges that Pugno misused public funds while on the staff of State Senator Pete Knight in the late 1990s to help the ...
If Boies and team is able to show what he claims, that their testimony was without basis, the experts have opened themselves to charges of perjury. Removing the possibility that the defense team knew about the baselessness of the depositions, because such a circumstance would be an egregious violation of professional responsibility, this also has huge implications for the case. If the defense exp...
The pattern looks pretty clear. Our side is saying that gays and lesbians have been harmed for a really long time, that there has been institutional discrimination, that they are a suspect class (meaning they should be covered by the equal protection clause). Our side is also showing that marriage will be strengthened by permitting loving same-sex couples access it, that society will be more stabl...
