Legal experts puzzled over California justice's seeming reversal on Prop. 8

11/25/08 LA Times: Reporter Maura Dolan states that "a close reading of the court's one-page order suggests that gay-rights advocates may have lost [in California Supreme Court Justice Joyce Joyce Kennard] a usually predictable ally in their effort to overturn Proposition 8." UCLA law professor Brad Sears said that "[i]t definitely isn't a good sign" that Justice Kennard vote against review of Prop. 8 with respect to post-election marriages. UC Berkeley law professor Jesse Choper believes that she appears to think that Prop. 8 "isn't worth reviewing." Santa Clara University law professor Gerald Uelmen notes that the Chief Justice Ronald George and Justice Kennard will have a decisive role in the Court's ruling. He speculates that Justice Kennard may have concluded that a majority is unlikely to rule in a way she would otherwise favor. UC Irvine Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinksy said that "[s]he is a justice who will do what she thinks is right as to the law without any regard to what the political consequences are."