Associate Dean Amar Comments on Prop 8 Case for Bee, LA Times
Associate Dean Vikram Amar commented for the Sacramento Bee and Los Angeles Times on the U.S. District Court case Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the federal court challenge to California's Proposition 8 that will likely set the stage for a Supreme Court ruling on the same-sex marriage ban.
Prop. 8, passed by voters in November 2008, changed the state constitution to define marriage as between only a man and woman, and the California Supreme Court last year upheld the voters' right to change the constitution, prompting two same-sex couples to file a federal equal-protection challenge to the measure in U.S. District Court in Northern California.
Speaking to a Sacramento Bee report, Associate Dean Amar commented that the conflict over gay marriage would likely end up in the U.S. Supreme Court, but the accumulation of evidence advanced in the District Court case could serve as a foundation for a higher court's definitive decision. He stressed the importance of the "expert" witness research introduced during the trial, and noted the important role such research played during the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education case that struck down school segregation.
"Social science studies were cited that black children suffered low self-esteem because they went to separate schools," Amar said. "Could other social scientists have argued other things? Of course."
Associate Dean Amar also commented on Perry v. Schwarzenegger for the Los Angeles Times, stating that for supporters of gay rights, "The worst-case scenario is a 9th Circuit ruling in favor of the plaintiffs. That will force the Supreme Court's hand, and it will lead to a bad precedent," given that it would appear unlikely that a majority of Supreme Court justices would affirm such a ruling.
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.