Prop. 8 Backers Can't Catch Legal Break
By LORI PREUITT
Updated 6:06 AM PDT, Wed, Oct 28, 2009
It looks like the backers of Proposition 8 just can't catch a legal break.
Late Friday a judge rule that the sponsors of California's ban on same-sex marriage can't delay handing over campaign strategy documents to their opponents. They wanted to wait until the almost certain appeal process, but the judge said do it now.
The gay-rights groups admit they are on a hunt for evidence of any anti-gay bias.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker of San Francisco said Prop. 8 backers failed to show that disclosing internal memos and e-mails would violate their freedom of speech or subject them to harassment.
"It simply does not appear likely that (Prop. 8's) proponents will prevail on the merits of their appeal," Walker said in court.
Proposition 8 was approved by California voters a year ago. It amends the state constitution to define marriage as a union of a man and a woman.
The trial is expected to be the first step in a legal process that will likely land the case in the U.S. Supreme Court.
A lesbian couple in Berkeley and a gay couple from Burbank filed the suit to overturn Prop. 8, claiming that the ban violates their federal constitution rights.
Judge Walker had the option of throwing the case out altogether last month, but refused.
He has set the trial date of January 11, 2009.
First Published: Oct 27, 2009 11:57 AM PDT on NBC Bay Area
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