Litigation

No Cameras for Prop 8 Closing Arguments

By Peter Hardin

Closing arguments set for next week in the historic same-sex marriage trial in California won’t be televised.

Federal Judge Vaughn Walker has denied a request by media groups to cover the final argument phase, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The media groups contended that it would not affect the fairness of the trial, or affect any witnesses, to broadcast a hearing involving only the judge and lawyers.

On the other side, backers of California’s ban on same-sex marriage maintained that cameras can be distracting for judges and lawyers and promote grandstanding, and the “avoidance of unpopular decisions or positions.”

Judge Walker did not give his reasons for turning down the request.

In January, the U.S. Supreme Court barred broadcasting the trial by a 5-4 margin. The majority wrote that it was not judging cameras in the courtroom but rather was narrowly addressing lower courts? procedure in trying to change the rules. Learn more about the controversy in Gavel Grab.

Meanwhile a New York times editorial, headlined “A Basic Civil Right,” quoted the Supreme Court as using that wording to call marriage ?essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.? It hesitated to predict an outcome in the trial, but called for legislative steps such as legalizing same-sex marriage in New York and repealing a federal law stating that marriage is the union of a man and a woman.

Full post as published by The Gavel on June 12, 2010 (boomark / email).