Tag Archives: Prop 8

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 …

Read More »

Judge Who Struck Down Prop 8 Dies At Age 87

The San Jose Mercury News report: Stephen Reinhardt, a judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, has died. He was 87. Reinhardt was considered to be one of the most liberal judges on the court. President Jimmy Carter appointed Reinhardt to the federal courts in 1980. One of Reinhardt’s most notable high-profile rulings in recent years was a 2012 …

Read More »

LDS Head Who Led Prop 8 Battle Dies At Age 90

The Associated Press reports: Thomas S. Monson, the 16th president of the Mormon church, has died after overseeing the religion for nine years. He was 90. Monson died Tuesday night at his home in Salt Lake City, according to church spokesman Eric Hawkins. Monson spent more than five decades serving in top church leadership councils — making him a well-known …

Read More »

Jeff Sessions Lawyers Up, Hires Attorney Who Failed In Defense Of Anti-Gay Prop 8 Before Supreme Court

USA Today reports: Jeff Sessions, the nation’s chief law enforcement officer and top prosecutor, has private lawyer of his own. Attorney Charles “Chuck” Cooper, a longtime advocate for conservative causes, has been providing counsel to the attorney general, most recently in preparation for his appearance last week before the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is investigating possible collusion between President Trump’s …

Read More »

Prop 8 Defender Chuck Cooper Withdraws From Solicitor General Consideration Rather Than Be Vetted

Politico reports: Chuck Cooper, the conservative Supreme Court litigator, is withdrawing his name from consideration to be the next solicitor general, opening the door for the husband of Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway to be appointed to the role. “I am deeply honored by any consideration that I may have received by Attorney General Sessions and President Trump for appointment as …

Read More »

Protect Marriage Lawyer Who Defended Prop 8 At Supreme Court Likely To Be Named Solicitor General

The Protect Marriage lawyer who defended Prop 8 at the Supreme Court and who later appeared to “evolve” on same-sex marriage is expected to be Trump’s pick for Solicitor General. Yahoo News reports: Conservative lawyer Chuck Cooper has emerged as Donald Trump’s likely pick to be the nation’s next solicitor general, three sources say. As the nation’s top advocate, Cooper …

Read More »

NORTH CAROLINA: HRC Retains Prop 8 Champion Ted Olson For Amicus Brief In Challenge Of Anti-LGBT Law

Via press release: Today, the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT civil rights organization, announced that Theodore B. Olson of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP will author an amicus brief on behalf of leading businesses in support of the Department of Justice’s lawsuit challenging North Carolina’s hateful HB2 law. “HB2 discriminates against fellow citizens because of who they are,” …

Read More »

SCOTUS Splits 4-4, Upholds Defeat Of Anti-Gay Bid To Upend Mandatory Public Sector Union Fees

In April 2013, Orange County elementary school teacher Rebecca Friedrichs sued the California Teachers Association, arguing that her mandatory union fees meant that she had been unwillingly forced into financially supporting the union’s advertising campaign against the passage of Proposition 8. Friedrich’s suit was joined by the Christian Educators Association International. Which brings us to today. Via The Atlantic: The …

Read More »

CALIFORNIA: Rural County At Center Of Proposition 8 Battle Gets LGBT Community Center

Longtime JMG reader Luis sends us the above photo from the grand opening of an LGBT center in Imperial County, California. If Imperial County rings a bell for you, that’s because it was once at the center of the Prop 8 battle that eventually ended up before the US Supreme Court. Anti-gay groups turned to deeply conservative Imperial County because …

Read More »

Prominent Catholics To Pope Francis: Replace Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone

Via the San Francisco Chronicle: In an unprecedented move, more than 100 prominent Roman Catholic donors and church members signed a full-page ad running Thursday in The Chronicle that calls on Pope Francis to replace San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone for fostering “an atmosphere of division and intolerance.” The plea follows months of dissent within the archdiocese over Cordileone’s emphasis …

Read More »

CALIFORNIA: AG Kamala Harris To Make 2016 Bid For Barbara Boxer’s Senate Seat

Via USA Today: California Attorney General Kamala Harris formally launched her campaign for the U.S. Senate and immediately pushed the nascent 2016 race to a new level. “I want to be a voice for Californians,” Harris said in an message to supporters posted on her website. “I will be a fighter for the next generation on the critical issues facing …

Read More »

AP Calls It: DeMaio Has Lost

Read More »

Carl DeMaio Burns Inside

From the California GOP, which notes that DeMaio has won the endorsement of the San Diego U-T, whose owner was a major backer of Prop 8.

Read More »

AFER’s Ted Olson: The SCOTUS Decision Was The Highlight Of My Life

“It does seem to suggest, if I was a federal judge, I would read today’s decision as saying that the opponents, if they still exist, on the Supreme Court of marriage equality have decided they don’t want to get into this and they sort of feel that the federal judges — one after the other, after the other, after the …

Read More »

Open Thread Thursday

One year ago today the Supreme Court changed the LGBT landscape forever. Tell us where you were and how the DOMA and Prop 8 rulings may have affected you.

Read More »

Archbishop Cordileone: YOU People Are The Haters, I’m Going To NOM’s March

Last week dozen of prominent politicians and faith leaders sent a letter to San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, urging him not to attend NOM’s hate march in Washington DC. Yesterday Cordileone responded to them with a letter of his own. Here’s an excerpt: It gives me assurance that we share a common disdain for harsh and hateful rhetoric. It must …

Read More »

COMPILATION: Gay News In The 2000s

JMG reader Dave Evans has compiled 40 minutes of gay-related news clips that aired in the 2000s. Among the topics: Lawrence V Texas, the Hate Crimes Act, Massachusetts marriage, Proposition 8, DADT, and DOMA. PREVIOUSLY ON JMG: Compilations of gay news in the 1970s, gay news in the 1980s, gay news in the 1990s, and the first ten years of …

Read More »

SAN DIEGO: County Clerk May Lose Election Over Gay Marriage Opposition

Following last year’s overturn of Prop 8, San Diego County Clerk Ernie Dronenburg filed a petition with the California Supreme Court asking that most state clerks be barred from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. According to Dronenburg, the SCOTUS ruling only applied to the two counties, Alameda and Los Angeles, where the Prop 8 plaintiffs lived. Dronenburg’s action was …

Read More »

Married Gay Tech Developers Announce Boycott Of Mozilla Over New CEO

On Monday, Mozilla appointed a new CEO who in 2008 donated $1000 to the Prop 8 campaign. Yesterday a boycott was announced by a married gay couple that runs a development company that produces products for Mozilla’s Firefox browser. Hampton Catlin, creator of Wikipedia Mobile and CSS extension language Sass, said he would no longer develop apps for Firefox after …

Read More »

Prop 8 Donor Named Mozilla CEO

The newly named CEO of Mozilla, the makers of the Firefox brower, is Brandon Eich, who gained headlines in 2008 when it was revealed that he had donated $1000 to the backers of Proposition 8.  From his personal blog: A donation that I made in support of California Proposition 8 four years ago became public knowledge and sparked a firestorm …

Read More »