The national, regional, and local media are turning to UC Davis law faculty for expert analysis and commentary on today's U.S. Supreme Court decisions on the Proposition 8 and Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) same-sex marriage cases.
Here is a sampling of media citations. This list will be updated as more stories hit the web.
Dean Kevin R. Johnson
Southern California Public Radio
DOMA ruling a victory for bi-national couples, but legal questions remain
As millions of people eagerly await next week's Supreme Court action in Hollingsworth v. Perry, the case from California involving Proposition 8 (the voter-enacted ban on same-sex marriages in the Golden State), I offer below a few thoughts on what to expect and what to look for in the Court's ruling.
We Should Not Expect a Definitive Resolution of the Federal Constitutional Question of Same-Sex Marriage
No one knows for sure what the Supreme Court is going to do with Hollingsworth v. Perry, the case (argued late last month) in which two same-sex couples sued in federal court to invalidate California’s Proposition 8, a voter-adopted state constitutional ban on gay marriage.
In the space below, I offer some quick analysis of the U.S. Supreme Court's oral argument on Tuesday in Perry v. Hollingsworth, the case in which same-sex couples challenge California's ban on same-sex marriage, the voter-adopted Proposition 8.
The Court Was Presented With a False Dilemma Concerning Sponsor Standing
In about six weeks, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in two potentially blockbuster same-sex marriage cases. In one case, Hollingsworth v. Perry, the plaintiffs challenge California’s voter-adopted ban on same-sex marriage (Proposition 8), and in the other, United States v.
Two of the biggest storylines from last month’s elections involved battles over same-sex equality rights and the decriminalization of marijuana. On the surface, these two topics seem to have little in common. But the intense controversies they are generating on the American political landscape arise from a similar kind of generational and demographic divergence of attitudes between older, whiter, Red-state voters on the one hand, and younger, more racially diverse and more Blue-state voters on the other. Both issues also raise prominent questions about federalism: th
“I’m a self-loathing law student,” confessed one of the students in my Critical Race Theory seminar this week. Several others immediately owned up to the same affliction. I will stipulate that self-loathing is probably not an affect we all should strive to achieve. But I was heartened anyway.
Now that we know the identity of the three judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit who will hear the appeal in the case challenging Proposition 8 (California's ban on same-sex marriage), observers are trying to handicap the outcome. I too am guilty on occasion of getting caught up in the horserace aspect of litigation prediction, but in this column I explain why complex lawsuits, like racing forms, aren't for the faint of heart.
