Federal Judiciary

Prop. 8 case on TV

By Lyle Denniston

The Ninth Circuit Court agreed on Wednesday to allow live and delayed broadcasting of the Dec. 6 oral argument on the constitutionality of Proposition 8 — California’s ban on same-sex marriage.  In a brief order, the Court cleared live broadcasting by C-SPAN, the cable network.  It also gave permission to a San Francisco station, KGO-TV, an ABC affiliate, to provide coverage.

The hearing, now scheduled for two hours, is to begin at 10 a.m. Pacific time.  The Court earlier this week issued a scheduling order.  On Wednesday, the challengers to Proposition 8 asked the Court to revise that schedule, to give it more time than the original schedule had allotted.  They urged the Court to leave it to the judges’ questions and lawyers’ arguments to determine how much of the time goes to the constitutional merits and to the issue of whether anyone has a right to appeal the case.

At issue in the case, aside from the question of “standing” to appeal, is a ruling by U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker striking down Proposition 8.

Full post as published by SCOTUSBLOG on November 17, 2010 (boomark / email).