For those who haven’t been paying attention recently there is currently a challenge to Prop 8 underway in the federal courts. Two very high-profile lawyers, Ted Olson (a conservative who argued for Bush in Bush v Gore) and David Boies (a liberal who argued for Gore in Bush v Gore), have brought Perry v Schwarzenegger to the Federal circuit and have rather successful kept out all the Gay, Inc. types who originally railed against them when they heard about the proceedings then decided to try to get on the bandwagon after it became inevitable that the case would go to trial. An interesting twist though is that under new federal regulations judges can decide whether or not to allow the trials in their courtrooms to be televised and the judge in this case, Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, pondered the idea but decided to have taped but released on a delay on YouTube.
The stage is set and now all we need is some rightwinger to cry foul about how transparency is secretly a left-wing conspiracy to scare anti-gay bigots off the witness stand. Oh wait, that’s what Michelle Malkin is for:
I generally support more sunshine in all government proceedings. But the judge’s unusual method of securing video coverage is extremely troubling. This isn’t a sincere educational effort to provide transparency to the public. It’s a flagrant attempt at making Prop. 8 a show trial — and intimidating Prop. 8 backers who will be called to testify.
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Former federal district judge Paul Cassell weighs in: “Without getting into the merits of Proposition 8 or the legal challenges to it, I agree with Whelan that it seems highly unusual for a judge to authorize televised proceedings for this particular case as part of some new “pilot” project to see how televised proceedings work. Surely if there were going to be a test run of a new idea, it should be in a more run-of-the-mill case rather than this particular highly controversial one. Moreover, it does appear that public comment process has been completely short-circuited.”
Indeed, the public comment process seems to have been wholly fixed in favor of anti-Prop. 8, nutroots-fueled feedback.
The MoveOn-backed left-wing group “Courage Campaign” conveniently coordinated an e-mail campaign backing Walker’s solicitation of public comment on his YouTube order. I’m on the group’s e-mail list and received this on Jan. 5:
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The anti-Prop. 8 mob has its thumbs on the scales of justice. Brace for a courtroom circus.
So not only is this some sort of giant conspiracy between the judge and left-wing groups it’s also a show trial and a mob induced circus. Really?
Would a televised trial stop someone from testifying if they truly believed that gay marriage would be detrimental to society as a whole? Doubtful. Would a televised trial stop someone from testifying if they were a bigoted douchebag who justified their backwards views with dogma and biblical passages? Quite possibly.
Let’s be clear: the only reason conservatives are against having this trial televised is because it will put the incoherency of their arguments against gay marriage on display for all to see. You can’t play on peoples prejudices in a courtroom. You can’t lie about how gay marriage means kids will be forced to learn about man-on-man buttsex in school. You can’t cite scripture. You have to submit evidence and expert testimony and cogent arguments based on statutory and case law. Unfortunately for the Defense of Marriage types, they don’t have any of that.
What they do have is ignorance, hate and a religious-fueled desire to cast down anyone who doesn’t fit their ideal mold which doesn’t play too well in a court of law… Or on a television screen.
Cross posted at Can’t Win For Losing.
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