Federal Court Orders Release Of 2010 Prop 8 Trial Video

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Ten years after a historic trial in San Francisco on the right to same-sex marriage, a federal judge on Thursday ordered a videotape of the proceedings unsealed next month so that the public could finally view it.

The non-jury trial before Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker included testimony by gay and lesbian couples and by supporters of Proposition 8, the 2008 state ballot initiative that had prohibited same-sex marriage in California.

Charles Cooper, a lawyer for backers of the ballot measure, said he disagrees with the ruling, believes courts remain bound by Walker’s commitment to keep the video sealed and plans to appeal.

Cooper last appeared on JMG in 2017 when he was hired by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to represent him during testimony in the Mueller investigation.

Cooper defended Proposition 8 before the US Supreme Court on behalf of California’s viciously anti-gay Protect Marriage, but made a U-turn in 2014, declaring that his own daughter’s marriage to a woman had changed his mind on the issue.

Judge Vaughn Walker returned to private practice in 2011.