Gay marriage on trial: closing arguments in landmark Prop. 8 case
Closing arguments for the Proposition 8 trial, which could overturn the 2008 California ban on gay marriage, will be delivered today in the Northern District Court.
It’s been 5 months since the last piece of evidence was presented in the federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of California’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, but there is still one final act to be made in the landmark case on Proposition 8. This morning lawyers will be making their closing arguments in the case and specifically addressing several questions from Chief District Court Judge Vaughn Walker who gave each side 27 clarifying questions to answer. Judge Vaughn wants lawyers to discuss “choice” in sexual orientation; he asks whether gays and lesbians should be treated identically under the Equal Protection Clause; and he asks the supporters of Prop. 8 how same-sex marriage would have negative social consequences and how it would drastically change marriage as an institution. Even while we discuss the outcome of this case remember that no matter how it’s decided it will be going to the Supreme Court—and should courts or voters be making the ultimate decisions on equal rights?
Guests:
Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family.
Geoff Kors, Executive Director for Equality California, a non-profit, non-partisan statewide advocacy organization for LGBT rights; Kors is an attorney who wrote San Francisco’s Equal Benefits Ordinance
Timothy Patrick McCarthy, Director of the Human Rights and Social Movements Program at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School
- Patt Morrison for June 16, 2010
- Gay marriage on trial: closing arguments in landmark Prop. 8 case
- Anthony Bourdain’s Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook
- The end of the filibuster? Common Cause tries to shake up a gridlocked Congress
- President Felipe Calderon blames U.S. as drug violence explodes
- Bret Easton Ellis: Imperial Bedrooms
Also on this episode
Events
Comedy Congress Live
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
7:30 p.m.
- 9 p.m.
The comedic material emanating from Washington D.C., and state capitols across the country, is enough to make any sitcom writer jealous, even if most of that comedy is unintentional. Our motto on Comedy Congress is that just when politics makes you want to cry, it’s usually best to laugh.
... » More info
