Lawyer argues MA rulings support CA case against Prop 8

July 12, 2010

Posted on abclocal.go.com:

 

"A lawyer for two couples challenging California's ban on the freedom to marry told a federal judge in San Francisco today that two rulings by another U.S. judge in Boston Thursday provide 'compelling support' for their case.

 

"Attorney Theodore Olson made the argument in a letter to U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker.

"Walker is presiding over a nonjury trial in which two gay and lesbian couples claim Proposition 8, California's voter-approved ban on marriage equality, violates their federal constitutional rights.

... "Olson wrote in the letter that U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro of Boston 'considered and rejected many of the same irrational justifications asserted by proponents in defense of Proposition 8.'

"The rulings show that 'none of the unfounded rationales asserted by proponents in justification of Proposition 8 can sustain this discriminatory law,' Olson argued.

... "The lawsuit before Walker, filed by Kristin Perry and Sandra Stier of Berkeley and Paul Katami and Jeffrey Zarrillo of Burbank, focuses on federal rather than state constitutional rights.

"The trial has been the nation's first federal trial on a challenge under the U.S. Constitution to a state law banning the freedom to marry."

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