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watermark | nation+world news
| September 1-14, 2011
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Judge considers whether to make Prop. 8 trial videos public wire report San Francisco, Calif. | Opponents and supporters of Proposition 8, California’s ban on gay marriage, presented arguments Aug. 29 to the U.S. District Court on whether to publicly release footage of the trial on the law’s constitutionality. Conservatives are currently appealing a ruling in a separate case striking down the ban. “We have a strong tradition of openness in this country and the First Amendment and common law make judicial records and proceedings presumptively open to the public,” Ted Boutrous, lawyer for the American Foundation for Equal Rights, told the court. “The proponents have been utterly unable to explain why the public should be barred from seeing and hearing for themselves what happened in a public trial,” he added. “The real reason that the proponents are fighting public release is that do not want the world to see the powerful evidence we submitted showing that Proposition 8 flatly violates the
Constitution.” U.S. District Judge James Ware allowed that he was generally in favor of allowing cameras in the courtroom, but also said he was concerned about the precedent of having one judge break the agreement made by another judge. The U.S. Supreme Court banned cameras from covering the high-profile case after attorneys for Proposition 8 argued that the public exposure could intimidate witnesses. The presiding judge, the now-retired Vaughn Walker, had his staff record the trial for what he said was his personal use in deciding the case. After Walker struck down Proposition 8 in August 2010, supporters of gay marriage argued that the videotapes should be unsealed in order to allow Americans to see the proceedings of the landmark trial. Protect Marriage, the conservative group defending the ban, believes releasing the footage would leave its two witnesses vulnerable to attacks and harassment. Ware said he would not delay and would issue a ruling soon. | l |
Ill. judge rules against Catholics on LGBT foster care
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wire report Springfield, Ill. | An Illinois judge ruled Aug. 18 that the state can stop working with Catholic Charities on adoptions and foster care placements—something the state decided to do in July after the not-for-profit agency refused to recognize Illinois’ new civil unions law. In his ruling, Sangamon County Circuit Judge John Schmidt said that no one, including Catholic Charities, has a legal right to a contract with the state government. The state Department of Children and Family Services ended $30 million in
contracts with Catholic Charities in four church dioceses in July, but Schmidt had temporarily reinstated them while he considered the case. Illinois authorities had said they were canceling the contracts because Catholic Charities’ practice of referring unmarried couples to other agencies was discriminatory, a violation of the state’s civil union law. Catholic Charities argued it was exempt under civil unions and another state law that protect religious practices. A spokesman for Catholic Charities said the organization’s lawyers were reviewing the ruling “and considering next actions.’’ | l |
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Perry signs pledge on antigay marriage amendment GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry has signed a National Organization for Marriage pledge to back a federal constitutional amendment against gay marriage—a reversal from a month ago when Perry said he so supported individual states’ rights that he was fine with New York’s approval of same-sex marriage. The pledge states that, if elected, Perry will pursue a Constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and appoint U.S. Supreme Court and federal judges who will “reject the idea our Founding Fathers inserted a right to
gay marriage into our Constitution.’’ Michelle Bachmann, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum have also signed the pledge.
Puerto Rico senator resigns in photo controversy Puerto Rico Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz announced Aug. 28 that Republican Sen. Roberto Arango presented a letter of resignation following reports that explicit photos of him surfaced on a mobile network application for gays and bisexuals. Arango represents San Juan, the U.S. territory’s capital. Arango has neither confirmed nor denied the photos are of him.