REMEMBER – SEEKING UPDATE..

Marriage Equality Foes Dealt a Blow -in Maine and California  REMEMBER THIS RULING – I AM TRYING TO FIND OUT IF THE RECORDS WERE RELEASED AND IF THEY WILL BE MADE PUBLIC.  IS THERE A TIME LIMIT  – TO HAND OVER?  KEEP YOUR EYE ON THIS SPACE BECAUSE WE WILL REPORT BACK….SOOOON.  MEL

Judge Orders  Prop 8 Campaign to hand over internal records. Judge Walker rocks. Second great ruling in favor of LGBT fight vs. Prop 8. Go your Honor, go!!  

 US. District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled on Thursday that the Protect Marriage campaign (Gay marriage foes) “had failed to show that providing private e-mails, memos and reports would inhibit the political activities of gay marriage opponents or subject them to unbridled harassment” and ordered them to be turnedover to the attorneys who are seeking to overturn Proposition 8.

The AP’s Lisa Leff reports: “The judge agreed with lawyers for two unmarried same-sex couples who have sued to strike down the ban, known as Proposition 8, that confidential communications between the campaign’s leaders and professional consultants could reveal a rationale for denying gays the right to wed that is relevant to the case. The lawsuit argues that the measure was motivated by hostility toward gays and as such must be struck down as inconsistent with the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of equality…At the same time, the judge said the couples’ lawyers must limit their fact-finding request to cover only central issues and individuals, including Mormon and Catholic church representatives who served on the executive committee that oversaw the campaign. He also left open the possibility that he would restrict public access to the documents.”

The Judge wrote: “The First Amendment qualified privilege proponents seek to invoke, unlike the attorney-client privilege, for example, is not an absolute bar against disclosure. Rather, the First Amendment qualified privilege requires a balancing of the plaintiffs’ need for the information sought against proponents’ constitutional interests in claiming the privilege.”

Protect Marriage lawyer Andy Pugno objected:-  “Giving the losing side of a campaign this level of information will discourage anyone from ever attempting to use the initiative process in the future, knowing that sensitive strategies will likely all become public if they prevail.  ”   Melanie says:- … so friggin what!!!  -Mr. Pugno that is the very point. Maybe they ought to be discouraged from using the initiative process when it comes to stripping  a minority of their basic civil rights.  This is the game you chose to play and now you must bear its ultimate consequence.  As my late mama would say, “its all besheerd!”  In any event the intiative process was never designed to take rights away from people.  Schmendrik!