Federal Prop 8 Court Case Goes to Trial in January

The next big date in all things Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in California, will be January 11th, 2010. In this morning's hearing about the case, backers of Prop 8 desired a 2010 summer date, but proponents of striking the ban down wanted it much earlier. U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker denied three gay rights group the ability to join the lawsuit, as well as a anti-gay marriage group's request, too. However, he did allow the City of San Francisco to join, but only to assess the impacts to local governments, explained the Associated Press. Expert witnesses will be designated by October 2nd with discovery concluding on November 30th. The pretrial conference will be on December 16th followed by the designation of rebuttal expert witnesses on December 31st, said the Mercury News.