UPDATE: The US Supreme Court has delayed the transmission of the Prop 8 trial video until Wednesday. The order allows the Supreme Court time to review and rule on the last minute appeal from Prop 8 proponents. There is no delay however in the trail itself.
Today, Monday January 11th, a remarkable legal case opens in a San Francisco courtroom—on its way, it seems almost certain, to the Supreme Court. Perry v. Schwarzenegger challenges the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the California referendum that, in November, 2008, overturned a state Supreme Court decision allowing same-sex couples to marry. Its lead lawyers are unlikely allies: Theodore B. Olson, the former solicitor general under President George W. Bush, and a prominent conservative; and David Boies, the Democratic trial lawyer who was his opposing counsel in Bush v. Gore.” “Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker approved court-operated cameras in his courtroom for delayed release on YouTube, but rejected a bid by media organizations to televise the proceedings themselves for live broadcast.”
Walker concluded “it is just the type of case that warrants breaking with traditions that generally have outlawed cameras in the nation’s federal courts.
‘I think it’s worth trying in this case,’the judge told a packed courtroom.
Walker is permitting court-operated cameras in his courtroom for delayed release of the Proposition 8 trial on YouTube. He becomes the first federal trial judge in the West to make use of an experimental program put in place recently by the 9th Circuit Judicial Council, the policy arm of the federal courts in nine states, including California.”
Several federal courthouses around the country, however, will provide a live video and audio feed of the trial.
Perry et al v. Schwarzenegger et al — Challenge to “Proposition 8” Official Website.
The United States District Court for the Northern District of California YouTube channel.