New Jersey court rejects gay case

The NJ supreme court told same-sex marriage advocates to pursue their case in lower courts.

New Jersey court rejects gay case

The NJ supreme court told same-sex marriage advocates to pursue their case in lower courts.

Supreme Court takes gay case

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case a Christian student group claiming discrimination.

Supreme Court takes gay case

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case a Christian student group claiming discrimination.

Supreme Court gets into R-71 case

The Supreme Court shielded R-71 signatures as it hears a case on open-government laws.

NY court hears case against gay marriage benefits

(Albany, NY) A Christian legal group seeking to stop New York agencies from recognizing same-sex marriages performed outside the state argued in the state’s highest court Tuesday that the practice amounts to a policy decision that requires approval by lawmakers.

Attorney Brian Raum told state Court of Appeals judges that a …

BC court tosses polygamy case

BC court tosses polygamy case

Update: Obama disses marriage law as Justice defends it

(Washington) President Barack Obama insisted Monday he still wants to scrap what he calls a discriminatory federal marriage law, even as his administration angered gay rights activists by defending it in court.

The president said his administration’s stance in a California court case is not about defending traditional marriage, but is …

Federal Judge Stresses Trial Record on Calif. Gay-Marriage Ban

Whatever Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker winds up deciding on Proposition 8, it’s clear he wants an airtight trial record to support it.

Holding his first hearing Thursday on the controversial measure that outlawed same-sex marriage, Walker repeatedly stressed the importance of establishing a record that will stand the test of time.

He told a packed courtroom that he was “reasonably sure” that the challenge launched by two high-profile litigators is “only touching down in this court” and merely a “prelude” for things to come.

“How we do things here,” Walker said, “is more important than what we do.”

He noted that other courts have rendered decisions on same-sex marriage without holding full trials, which he suggested was a “problem.”

Perry v. Schwarzenegger, 09-CV-2292, was filed in May by Theodore Olson, who represented George W. Bush in the landmark Bush v. Gore case, and David Boies, who represented Al Gore. Boies wasn’t present on Thursday. The suit attacks Prop 8 on equal protection and due process grounds.

Walker had already issued a tentative order allowing Prop 8 proponents to intervene and denying a preliminary injunction (pdf). He stood by both orders during Thursday’s 50-minute session.

Olson, a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Washington, D.C., office who has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court 55 times, nonetheless made a fleeting attempt to persuade Walker to change his mind on the injunction.

“Every day that Prop 8 is enforced perpetuates a tragic injustice” on gays and lesbians, he argued, saying it “brands” them as “second-class citizens, unworthy and different.”

“The Supreme Court,” Olson argued, “has held again and again and again that the right to marry is the most important relationship in life.”

Representing the Prop 8 proponents, Washington attorney Charles Cooper, who was a top Justice Department lawyer during the Reagan administration, warned that the lawsuit could “sweep away” not only Prop 8, but the definition of marriage in 43 states and the federal government.

The Cooper & Kirk partner also argued that marriage has by tradition always been the union of a man and a woman, and said that every Supreme Court case that describes marriage has noted that its central purpose is procreation.

See Federal Judge Stresses Trial Record on Calif. Gay-Marriage Ban Above the Law

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