Judicial decision forthcoming to unseal the video tape records of Prop 8 trial

Yesterday, the plaintiffs in Perry v. Brown — the case to overturn the ban on marriage for gay and lesbian Californians — urged Chief Judge James Ware to unseal the video recordings of the Proposition 8 trial, citing the strong presumption of public access to judicial records and the lack of any basis to keep the video secret. Prop. 8 was ruled unconstitutional in August 2010.

The American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) is the sole sponsor of the Perry lawsuit.

During the Prop. 8 trial, then-Chief Judge Vaughn Walker allowed the entire trial proceedings to be videotaped. Because the trial tapes are now part of the District Court record and record on appeal, Plaintiffs contend that the First Amendment and the common law establish a strong presumption that these judicial records are open to the public.

Plaintiffs argue that Prop. 8 proponents have offered no legitimate reason or factual evidence to keep the entire video recording of the trial secret.

“We have a strong tradition of openness in this country and the First Amendment and common law make judicial records and proceedings presumptively open to the public.  This presumption applies with full force to videotaped record of this historic trial,” said AFER attorney Theodore J. Boutrous. “The Proponents have been utterly unable to explain why the public should be barred from seeing and hearing for themselves what happened in a public trial potentially affecting the rights of millions of Americans.  The real reason that the Proponents are fighting public release is that do not want the world to see the powerful evidence we submitted showing that Proposition 8 flatly violates the Constitution and the extraordinarily weak case that they put on trying to defend this discriminatory law.”

The City and County of San Francisco and Media Coalition members including The LA Times, CNN, The New York Times, FOX News, NBC News, The Associated Press and others filed briefs urging the court to release the videotapes of the public trial.

Judge Ware said that he would issue a ruling soon.

Prior to the trial, the proponents of Proposition 8 won an argument to seal the video tapes, claiming that they would be harassed by gay groups. The proponents offered very little expert testimony and were unable to provide any facts to support their arguments that same sex marriage is harmful to society, including that the only purpose of marriage is about bearing children.

Anti-gay groups such as the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) have accused Judge Walker of being biased because he is gay, even though the written transcript indicates no bias or judicial activism.  Writing for the Huffington Post, author Karen Ocamb examined NOM and other religious right groups' claims of judicial activism.

Should the videos become publicly available, parties interested in both sides of the marriage equality case will finally have an opportunity to see what actually occurred during the trial, rather than having to read the thousands of pages of transcripts or rely on the opinions of activists on either side.

God Discussion Reporter

Deborah is the owner and administrator of the site, starting it in February 2009. She received her business education at the University of Texas and operates a number of websites and small businesses. She hosts the God Discussion show and handles the site's technical work and editing.

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