2010: California's Prop 8 Trial

SAN FRANCISCO (BP)--After an opening day that included testimony from two same-sex couples, the second day of the California Proposition 8 trial saw two professors -- both of whom are "gay marriage" advocates -- take the stand and recount the history of marriage laws and discrimination.

SAN FRANCISCO (BP)--With demonstrators outside the courthouse and an overflow crowd inside the courtroom, a closely watched federal trial that could force every state to legalize "gay marriage" concluded its first day of witness testimony Monday.

SAN FRANCISCO (BP)--A high-profile federal trial that could lead to the overturning of California Prop 8 and traditional marriage laws in every state began in California Monday, but not before Prop 8 supporters won a major victory at the U.S. Supreme Court.       The nation's highest court issued a temporary order preventing the trial before U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco from being posted on YouTube at the end of each day, as Walker had previously said he would permit. The Supreme Court order remains in effect until Wednesday at 4 p.m. Eastern, before which the justices could make it permanent or could allow the posting on YouTube to commence. Only Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer dissented in Monday's ruling.       It's the second time in recent weeks that an order by Walker -- who critics say has stacked the deck against Prop 8 backers -- has been reversed. In December the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said Prop 8 supporters did not have to release private internal e-mails and memos from their fall 2008 campaign, as Walker had instructed them to do. Passed by a margin of 52-48 percent, Prop 8 was a constitutional amendment that restored the traditional definition of marriage and overturned a California court ruling that had legalized "gay marriage."       Attorneys with ProtectMarriage.com, the group that sponsored Prop 8, had filed both appeals.       The case, Perry v. Schwarzenegger, was filed on behalf of two homosexual couples in May by Ted Olson and David Boies, the two attorneys who reached national prominence in 2000 when they represented George W. Bush and Al Gore, respectively, in Bush v. Gore. They are now teammates, hoping to see their case overturn traditional marriage laws in the same way that, say, Roe v. Wade reversed pro-life laws. Most likely, the case eventually will end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.       "This is the first serious case where the federal constitution has been invoked as the basis for a right to same-sex marriage," Jordan Lorence, senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund and one of the attorneys involved in defending Prop 8, told Baptist Press. "All of the other cases that we've heard about over the years -- Massachusetts and Connecticut -- those were all suits under their respective state constitutions. ... [This case] potentially could be used to challenge all the state marriage amendments, all the state laws that define marriage as a man and woman, as well as the federal Defense of Marriage Act."       Olson and Boies argue that Prop 8 violates the U.S. Constitution's Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses and that it discriminates and makes same-sex couples second-class citizens. In a July Wall Street Journal article, Boies wrote that passage of Prop 8 "is the residue of centuries of figurative and literal gay-bashing."

WASHINGTON (BP)--Christian opposition to "same-sex marriage" is not based on hostility toward homosexuals and should not be considered bigotry, the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission says in a friend-of-the-court brief prepared for the current trial on California's Proposition 8.