Prop 8 Trial Will Not Go Viral, Supreme Court Rules
Our Supreme Court has just barred District Judge Vaughn Walker from putting the upcoming California Proposition 8 trial on YouTube. "The high court did not explain its reasoning."
You can only get an "emergency order" from the Supreme Court if you can prove that your client will suffer "irreparable harm." The defenders of Proposition 8, the people who want to bar gay men and women from having the same rights as them, argued that people would harrass them for being bigots if it was revealed, on YouTube, that they were bigots, which they are.
San Francisco's own Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer disagreed with the majority:
"In my view, the court's standard for granting a stay is not met" in this case, he wrote. "In particular, the papers filed, in my view, do not show a likelihood of 'irreparable harm.'"
As the LA Times notes:
In October, the justices blocked officials in the state of Washington from releasing the names of 138,000 people who signed ballot petitions seeking to overturn a state law giving equal benefits to gay and lesbian couples. Under Washington law, the names were considered public record.
Right. But someone might've sent mean letters to the people who signed their names to that public document demanding that the limited concessions granted to gay couples be taken away! Can't have that!