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Heads up about same-sex marriage ruling

By Mark Obbie

Now here's an innovation worth copying. The California Supreme Court announced a day in advance that it will make news in a particular case -- its ruling on whether a ban on same-sex marriage violates the state constitution. The notice of the impending ruling, at 10 a.m. tomorrow, gives reporters ample time to line up experts and participants in the cases to quote, to bone up on the case history, and to put their best available people on it. I don't know if that court routinely does this (I saw no other notices of "forthcoming filings" on the site). I'm not aware of other courts -- most especially the U.S. Supreme Court -- taking this baby step toward accommodating better news coverage of the law. I can imagine the arguments against it (namely, if we know the decision is final, then scoring a leaked copy of it will be a real scoop, because we're sure it's the final product). But that remote possibility shouldn't prevent such forward thinking. (Via Cal Law's Legal Pad)

Full post as published by Lawbeat on May 14, 2008 (boomark / email).