Tuesday, October 6, 2009

A profile of Cooper & Kirk's Charles Cooper, attorney for official Prop. 8 proponents in the Perry case

10/06/09 The Recorder:

Charles Cooper, of Cooper & Kirk, represents the official Prop. 8 proponents in the Perry case. According to The Recorder, he is a close friend of plaintiffs' attorney Theodore Olson. Both were colleagues in Reagen's Justice Department.

The Recorder
portrays Cooper as "a courtly D.C. insider to - calmly - make [the] case" of Prop. 8 supporters." As evidence, the newspaper describes his conduct during an August 19th hearing, when Judge Vaugn Walker considered and rejected a motion to intervene by proposed defendant Campaign for California Families (CCF). Representing CCF, Liberty Counsel attorney Rena Lindevaldsen claimed that "individuals should be entitled to treatment to change [their] sexual orientation," a position that Cooper did not defend.

The Recorder states that Cooper will likely have as much influence as Olson on the case.

While Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, finds the views of Prop. 8 supporters offensive, she told The Recorder:
You can't continue to make appeals, based on what is widely regarded as nothing but pure prejudice, and expect to win. So, faced with that sense of the circumstances, and that changed landscape, you have two choices: either abandon your arguments, understand the error of your ways and support full equality, or you attempt to recruit validators whose views are more palatable and who are not seen as so extreme.

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