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News

Prop 8 Trial: Day 10 Recap & Day 11 Preview

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Now that the defense is presenting their case to legitimize Prop 8, which banned gay marriage in California, things are getting extremely interesting. Here's what happened yesterday in the courtroom, as told by each sides' legal teams:

  • From the Plaintiffs (pro gay marriage) via e-mail: "[Lawyers] Olson and Boies opened the day with the presentation of videos and documents from the Prop. 8 campaign. Below are quotes from a broadcast paid for by the Prop. 8 campaign/ProtectMarriage.com that were shown in court today."
  • One example from the video (the rest are below): "Then pedophiles would have to be allowed to marry 6-7-8 year olds. The man from Massachusetts who petitioned to marry his horse after marriage was instituted in Massachusetts. He'd have to be allowed to do so. Mothers and sons, sisters and brothers, any, any combination would have to be allowed."
  • From the Defendants (pro traditional marriage) via their blog: "Before resting their case, plaintiffs began Week Three this morning with a “document dump,” which means they admitted into the trial record a slew of documents they view to be evidence to support their case. Nothing earthshaking in and of itself, but the subtext is utterly astounding."
  • From the Defendants: "After plaintiffs rested their case today, our legal team called to the stand our first witness, Dr. Kenneth Miller, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna and expert on California politics. Dr. Miller’s task was pretty straightforward: to lay out the reality that gays and lesbians in California have achieved enormous political power at all levels of government. Why is this important? Because to trigger the highest level of constitutional protection in favor of their claims, our opponents need to prove that gays and lesbians are a vulnerable and 'politically powerless' minority."
  • From the Plaintiffs: "On Monday, Miller admitted that he based his testimony in part on materials provided to him by the attorneys defending Prop. 8, instead of relying on his own 'expert' research. Beyond that, he testified that he could not remember whether attorneys provided at least 65 percent of the materials he based his research on, totalling well over 200 documents, articles, etc... Miller was called by the defendant-intervenors to argue that gay men and lesbians do indeed possess political power, making it appropriate for their civil rights to be eliminated at the ballot box."As for today...

    • The cross-examination of Miller will continue.
    • David Blankenhorn is expected to be called to the stand after Miller.

        Continuing with quotes from a Protectmarriage.com video:

        "Second of all, the polygamists are waiting in the wings because if a
        man can marry a man and a woman can marry a woman based on the fact
        that you have the right to marry whoever you want to marry, then the
        polygamists are going to use that exact same argument and they're
        probably going to win."

        "We are seeing the people of Massachusetts being desensitized day by
        day concerning homosexuality and becoming more and more adjusted to
        the idea of homosexual marriage being the law of the land and the
        homosexual agenda becoming more and more of a powerful element in the
        life of our society."

        "I think a helpful way to think about this is to compare it to 9/11
        [because] a lot of us are asking-How does this directly affect us? Well I
        wasn't directly affected by 9/11 and my guess is most of you weren't
        either in the sense I didn't know somebody who crashed the plane in
        the building. I didn't know somebody who was in the building. But
        after 9/11 the world was a fundamentally different place and that has
        affected me. The change in the redefinition of marriage is the same
        type of thing."

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