Assoc. Dean Amar Comments on Prop. 8 for State, Local Media
Associate Dean Vikram Amar commented for media including the San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, Los Angeles Times, Sacramento Bee, and KQED radio on the ruling by Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker that struck down California's Proposition 8.
Proponents of the measure, which banned same-sex marriage in California, have vowed to appeal, setting the stage for a legal battle widely expected to reach the U.S. Supreme Court. In an op-ed published in the August 8 San Francisco Chronicle and interviews with the Chronicle and other media, Associate Dean Amar offered analysis regarding possible outcomes of a hearing in the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, stating that "The key court in the Prop. 8 battle may end up being the Ninth Circuit, not Walker's trial court or the U.S. Supreme Court."
Associate Dean Amar told the Chronicle said that involvement by the Supreme Court is more likely if the Ninth Circuit upholds Judge Walker's decision, since that would have widespread implications for laws regulating same-sex marriage in several western states. "If the Ninth Circuit invalidates all of the laws of the Western states, that would be a momentous change that might require the Supreme Court to charge in," said Dean Amar. "But if they uphold Prop. 8, they're not changing the world."
Speaking to the Mercury News, Dean Amar suggested that the Ninth Circuit would be wise not reverse Judge Walker's decision. "If the 9th Circuit reverses Walker, then you have all this chaos," he said. "I think the prudent course would be to issue a stay."
Comments by Dean Amar were also paraphrased in a Los Angeles Times article analyzing the possibility of a Supreme Court case. "Some legal experts, notably Vikram David Amar - a dean at UC Davis' law school and an authority on federal procedure - aren't so sure that Walker's decision inevitably will end up before the Roberts court," writes Tim Rutten. "A lot depends on which three-judge panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit of Appeals hears the first appeal and, if a rehearing by the entire circuit is asked for and granted, what the composition of that panel will be."
Conservative judges may find that Walker played "fast and loose" with a U.S. Supreme Court decision that found marriage is a fundamental right, Associate Dean Amar told the Bee, adding that others may find that he gave short shrift to the argument that voters have a right to be cautious about social changes. Judge Walker's ruling, he added, "poked a lot of holes" in the defense, and "The arguments have been framed."
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.