Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Judge Vaugn Walker grants stay of discovery order pending appeal in Perry v. Schwarzenneger

"Equality California has filed a motion for a stay in response to Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling ordering Equality California and the American Civil Liberties Union to turn over internal strategy emails and campaign materials from the No on Proposition 8 campaign." (Equality California, cross-posted by Straight Talk on Marriage. See also the ACLU press release.) In their motion, Equality California and the ACLU rely on a recent 9th Circuit ruling in the case - Perry v. Schwarzenegger, 591 F.3d 1147 (9th Cir. 2010) - to argue that Judge Walker misinterprets their private, campaign communications as falling outside the scope of First Amendment protection. Judge Walker has granted the stay until March 29th to allow the organizations opportunity to appeal.

"The legal wrangling could slow the historic trial still unfolding before Walker." (San Jose Mercury News) Equality California and the ACLU do not want to delay the lawsuit, but they claim that they are "defending issues of a fundamental nature under the First Amendment with consequences not merely for this case but for future election campaigns of all sorts."

Geoff Kors, Executive Director of Equality California, accuses Prop. 8 proponents of having "
cherry-picked the three organizations from the [No on 8] campaign that they feel are the biggest threat to their anti-equality agenda."

No comments:

Commentators, Subjects and Cases