Litigation

YouTube Ruling in Gay Marriage Case Is Blasted

By Peter Hardin

The Supreme Court is getting a thrashing from commentators for its recent 5-4 decision outlawing broadcasting of the San Francisco trial in a lawsuit testing the constitutionality of California’s gay-marriage ban, and denying a unique opportunity for public education.

Tim Rutten wrote in the Los Angeles Times that with the broadcasting decision (see earlier Gavel Grab posts), the high court probably signaled its views on same-sex marriage. Rutten added:

“That makes this trial in some ways more important as a forum for public elucidation than as one likely to establish legal precedent. The more the pity, then, that this week’s action by the court will deny that opportunity.”

In the San Jose Mercury News, Scott Herhold asserted that broadcasting the trial “might open a few eyes to the sandpaper of prejudice” and “offer a glimpse into how the courts work ? or don’t work.” For such an important trial dealing with “the definition of family,” he wrote, “it’s fundamentally wrong and shortsighted to let the story unfold in the cloisters.”

In Slate, Dahlia Lithwick questioned the Supreme Court’s view of the American public, as suggested by its concern for potential harassment of traditional marriage supporters if their testimony was broadcast:

“One cannot argue that the majority of California citizens wanted to ban gay marriage and should be respected while also claiming that supporters of such an initiative are a fragile, oppressed minority who must testify in dark sunglasses in dark rooms. Opponents of gay marriage can’t have it both ways.”

A news article in the New York Times used the broadcasting decision, and several others, to depict a high court “better at precedent than prescience.” Still other sketches coming from the trial over Proposition 8–the ballot initiative resulting in the gay-marriage ban–included a profile of District Judge Vaughn R. Walker, the trial judge, in the Seattle Post Intelligencer; and a feature about the large legal cast sharing the spotlight at the trial, by The Recorder.

To learn more, see previous Gavel Grab articles.

Full post as published by The Gavel on January 19, 2010 (boomark / email).