Assoc. Dean Amar Comments for National and State Media on Prop 8 Hearings
Associate Dean Vikram Amar commented for media outlets including National Public Radio's Morning Edition, Southern California Public Radio station KPCC's Patt Morrison Show, the Recorder, the Los Angeles Times, and the Christian Science Monitor on the California Supreme Court arguments on whether sponsors of Proposition 8 have standing to appeal last year's federal court ruling that overturned the same-sex marriage ban initiative.
"I don't think it is open-and-shut either way," Amar told the Times. "If sponsors of initiatives don't have standing, then you have the possibility that elected officials like governors and attorneys general can essentially undo an initiative by refusing to defend it."
Legal precedent under state law is unclear, he told Morning Edition, and the Court will be "deciding something that governs initiatives more generally" rather than issuing a narrow ruling that would apply only to Prop. 8 and its backers. "And they have latitude, I think, to do that without too many handcuffs on them right now."
Observers should be wary of trying to predict the outcome based on the content of the oral arguments, he told the Christian Science Monitor. "Oral argument can be very misleading if you are expecting the justices to tip their hands as to what they are thinking by the questions they ask," said Amar.
Vikram Amar, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor of Law with the UC Davis School of Law, is a national authority in the fields of constitutional law, civil procedure, criminal procedure, and remedies. His biweekly column for Justia.com, a leading provider of online legal information, centers on his expertise in constitutional law.