Legal News

Supreme Court says no to Prop 8 video broadcast

By Richard Binder

The U.S. Supreme Court, by a 5-4 vote, continued the stay on transmitting video coverage of the Prop 8 trial.  The conservative majority wrote that defenders of the ban on gay marriage would suffer "irreparable" harm should the trial be publicly broadcast.

Witnesses could be harassed, the justices went on to say in the 17-page unsigned opinion, and "might be less likely to cooperate in any future proceedings." Prop 8 supporters based their request for a continued stay on similar claims, that witnesses have already been threatened for publicly opposing gay marriage. 

In a 10-page dissent, Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote, "The majority's action today is unusual. It grants a stay in order . . . to intervene in a matter of local court administration that it would not (and should not) consider. It cites no precedent for doing so. It identifies no real harm, let alone 'irreparable harm'. . . . And the public interest weighs in favor of providing access to the courts."

The court's order means that the trial can be seen only inside the courthouse in San Francisco.

Click these for details.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on January 14, 2010 (boomark / email).