Proposition 8 On Trial

The testimony has concluded (click here for a video wrap up), but amicus briefs are still being filed in the Perry v. Schwarzenegger, constitutionality of same-sex marriage, case that took place in the Federal Courthouse in San Francisco. Attorneys David Boies and Ted Olson a Democrat and a Republican who repesented opposite sides in the Bush v. Gore election aftermath are the odd couple who have presented the case to Judge Vaughn Walker.

Kudos to those who, in spite of a court order banning filming the proceedings, have kept us informed of the action, blow by blow.

The Courage Campaign has a site: prop8trialtracker.com that already has an interesting lawsuit under it's belt. They used is a slightly altered version of the original yes on prop 8 logo with one of the characters changed from male to female. In other words, they made the family headed by a lesbian couple. They won their lawsuit based on the grounds that parody and satire are legal!

Firedoglake has done a great job live-blogging the entire trial so here's a shout-out to them and their flying fingers!

But the coup de grace on the camera issue came when Los Angeles film makers John Ireland and John Ainsworth decided to take the transcript and film a complete reenactment of the proceedings using volunteers from the Screen Actors Guild. It can be viewed, with actors bios and all kinds of background information at their web site: http://www.marriagetrial.com/ and for the youtube version with a larger screeen size click here.

Thanks to these folks and many others who have given us full access to this ground-breaking trial!