Assoc. Dean Amar Comments on Prop. 8 Appeal for L.A. Times
Associate Dean Vikram Amar commented for the Los Angeles Times on the continuing court battles over Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California but was overturned by a federal judge last month. ProtectMarriage, the group that sponsored Prop. 8, has argued that because the suit that challenged the initiative was not filed as a class action, U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker's ruling against the ballot measure should not apply to all same-sex couples in the state but only those named in the suit.
Associate Dean Amar, who voted against Prop. 8, said he believed ProtectMarriage was legally correct. "Under Supreme Court precedent, there's no way a judge can protect plaintiffs other than the named plaintiffs absent a class action," 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 FindLaw.com, a leading provider of online legal information, centers on his expertise in constitutional law.