On Monday, January 25th, the 10th day of the Prop 8 case being heard in San Francisco, Ted Olson and David Boies, attorneys for the plaintiffs, rested their case. Now, the defense team makes their case…
The Washington Post reports…
Kenneth Miller, a professor at Claremont McKenna College who teaches California politics and researches ballot initiatives, was the first defense witness in the trial over the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the voter-approved ban.
Miller said one indication of the gay rights movement’s clout in California was that neither Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger nor any other statewide office holders endorsed Proposition 8. But perhaps the best measure of the movement’s strength was the $43 million amassed to defeat the gay marriage ban in 2008, he said. That was $3.4 million more than initiative backers raised.
Boies pushed back at Miller, asking if he thought Prop 8 was inherently discriminatory…
"It’s differential treatment. Whether it’s legally discriminatory, I don’t know," Miller said.
Read the rest of this article here…
The New York Times reports on the cross examination of Kenneth Miller, at the hand of Attorney David Boies. Boies tried to illuminate Miller’s lack of knowledge when it comes to LGBT discrimination, both currently and historically…
Mr. Boies pointed out that during his deposition, Dr. Miller did not know how many states had laws regarding discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Mr. Boies continued to ask Dr. Miller to answer a range of difficult questions, ranging from political history to gay and lesbian politics and scholarship.
“What academic books and articles are you familiar with regarding the discrimination against minority groups?”
Dr. Miller demurred.
“You mean you can’t think of any titles?” Mr. Boies asked.
“No, I can’t,” Dr. Miller responded.
Mr. Boies, minutes later, asked, “Nationally, do you believe the African-American minority or the gay and lesbian minority has the greater political power?”
Dr. Miller responded, “I’d have to say I don’t know.”
Read the rest of this article here…
Shannon Minter, who was a lead attorney in the California Supreme Court case concerning legal same sex marriage, open up and provides his take on the current Prop 8 case, as reported by the Advocate…
Aside from the judge and litigants of the case, perhaps no one has been more present during Perry v. Schwarzenegger over the past several weeks than Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights (if you’re following the case but haven’t seen his commentary via Twitter, take note: He’s at @nclrights).
As lead attorney in the California state supreme court case that opened the door for gay couples to marry before Proposition 8 slammed it shut, Minter is no stranger to the arguments that the ballot measure’s defenders are using — ones that have ranged in this trial from dubious to utterly baffling. Minter recently put his tweeting aside for a few minutes to speak with Advocate.com about the landmark case as it heads into its third week.
The Advocate Interview touches on the matter of Paul Nathanson and Katherine Young, handpicked and paid for by the defense, who then withdrew from the case. Video depositions later revealed they made statements indicating the plaintiffs were correct in this matter. Minter comments….
"I have never seen a situation like that before in any case. Keep in mind that these were experts handpicked and paid for by the defense. To have a party’s own experts make admissions in depositions that the other side is completely correct about issues that are central to their case is almost unheard of."
Minter has also been posting his updates of the trial on Twitter. You can follow those postings here: http://twitter.com/nclrights
Mercury News provides a time breakdown of the 10th day of the trial, including this entry…
4:52 p.m.: Plaintiffs’ lawyer and prof spar over whether Prop 8 is discriminatory
Another day is done in the Proposition 8 trial. Kenneth Miller, a Claremont McKenna professor and the Proposition 8 team’s first witness, remains on the stand, under cross-examination by plaintiffs attorney David Boies. As the afternoon progressed, Boies moved on to sparring with Miller about the professor’s view of whether Proposition 8 and other same-sex marriage bans amount to discrimination. The lawyer and witness went around and around on the topic, with Miller only conceding that it just defines marriage as between a man and a woman and "excludes other forms of marriage." He also at one point said "it creates a distinction between the two groups."
