SF allowed to join federal challenge to Prop. 8By C. Nellie Nelson
U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker has ruled that San Francisco will be added as a co-plaintiff in the federal court challenge to Proposition 8.
“Judge Walker found we were situated differently. We were the only party to put forth the societal and governmental costs of marriage discrimination. The city has a perspective that private parties and even the state do not bring,” City Attorney Dennis Herrera told the Guardian. “In painstaking detail we put forth costs incurred by the Department of Public Health. Tax consequences. Budget consequences.”
But Judge Walker ruled against naming other anti-Prop. 8 legal groups American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights as parties. He ruled that the Campaign for California Families, which seeks to uphold Prop. 8, could not be a party in the case either. The LGBT law blog lawdork.net summarizes Walker’s decisions, “In short, this has moved the LGBT legal organizations to the periphery of a very prominent and potentially landmark case.”
Perry v. Schwarzenegger was filed at the federal level in order to expedite hearings, skipping delays that local and state courts would necessitate. Two same-sex couples, Kristin Perry and Sandra Stier, and Paul Katami and Jeffrey Zarrillo, initiated the suit against California.
The couples are represented by high-profile attorneys Theodore Olson and David Boies. After the presidential elections in 2000, Olson and Boies faced off in Bush v. Gore. Olson has served in both Ronald Reagan’s and George W. Bush’s administrations. According to The American Prospect, the LGBT legal groups would have preferred to wait for a liberal majority on the Supreme Court before filing the case.
In keeping with the accelerated pace, Judge Walker set the trial for January 11 of next year.
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