Legal News

On March 5, Set Your Tivos to the California Channel

By Ashby Jones

We would have had this post up a bit sooner, but we were busy calling our cable operator to find out whether, we, in Brooklyn, NYC, can get access to the California Channel by March 5. (No, we weren’t really calling, but we were surprised to discover the existence of a California Channel — the so-called C-SPAN of California. Who knew?) See, the California Channel is on that day planning to air the oral arguments before the state’s supreme court on Proposition 8, the legislation that passed in November banning same-sex marriage.

The California Supreme Court justices have allotted a whopping three hours to the arguments, set to begin at 9 a.m. Here are stories from the San Jose Merc, the San Francisco Chron and the LA Times. Click here, here and here for previous LB coverage on Prop 8. Click here for the California Supreme Court’s trove of information on Prop. 8. (It’s a wonderful resource; A LB kudos to the Court for setting it up!).

Suits challenging Prop. 8 have been filed by two groups of same-sex couples and by local governments. They argue that a measure depriving a minority of fundamental rights amounts to a revision of the state constitution, one that cannot be made through a Prop. 8-esque ballot initiative. (Check out our interview with David Cruz for more on this.)

A revision, say the challengers, can be placed on the ballot only by a two-thirds legislative vote or by delegates to a state constitutional convention. The court has upheld such challenges to initiatives only twice in its history. Prop. 8 foes also argue that it violates the constitutional separation of powers by preventing the judiciary from protecting a minority group.

Along with arguments over the constitutionality of Prop. 8, the court will hear views on whether 18,000 same-sex marriages performed in California before the November election should remain legally recognized if the ballot measure is upheld.

So how is the court divvying up its three hours? In Tuesday’s order scheduling the hearing, the court allotted 30 minutes to California AG Jerry Brown; 30 minutes each to the two groups of same-sex couples; 30 minutes to the local governments and 60 minutes to Protect Marriage, the ballot measure’s official sponsor. Protect Marriage is represented by Ken Starr.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on February 04, 2009 (boomark / email).