• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Towleroad
  • Towleroad on Social Media
  • Privacy Policy

Towleroad Gay News

Gay Blog Towleroad: More than gay news | gay men

  • Body
  • Daily Resist
  • POLITICS
  • Travel
  • Music
  • Theatre
  • Film
  • TV
  • Sports
  • Business
  • Men
  • Marriage Equality
  • Space
  • Trans Rights
  • Books
  • Science
  • Gay Iconography
  • TowleREAD

Final Brief Filed by Prop 8 Plaintiffs in Effort to Lift Stay on Same-Sex Marriage in California

March 18, 2011 by Andy Towle

Ted Olson and David Boies, the American Foundation for Equal Rights attorneys representing plaintiffs in the federal challenge to Proposition 8, filed the final brief in efforts to lift a stay imposed by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on an injunction issued by the U.S. District Court barring same-sex couples from marrying in California.

Citing "significant hurdles" to their opponents, Boies and Olson argue that Proposition 8 and the stay are "causing great damage" to Californians and urge the Court to lift the stay.

AFER published excerpts from the filing:

Olson-boies “This Court should lift the stay of the Order of the district court enjoining enforcement of Proposition 8, and allow loving and committed gay and lesbian couples in California to marry while the challenge to the judgment by Proponents proceeds to its conclusion. The mandatory requirements of a stay are plainly not met, and the circumstances that existed at the time the stay was first imposed have now changed materially against any arguable justification for a stay.”

“If the stay were lifted here, Proponents would suffer nothing but the psychic harm they alleged in living in a society in which loving couples of the same sex may be married, joining the thousands who married before Proposition 8 and who remain married today.”

“A cascade of contingencies—a possibility that the California Supreme Court might provide the ‘authoritative determination’ Proponents seek, tethered to a chance that such a state-law determination might suffice to confer Article III standing on Proponents, which then opens the possibility that this Court could adopt Proponents’ arguments on the merits—is not the type of “strong showing” of a likelihood of success that Supreme Court precedent remotely demands. Indeed, given the significant hurdles now before them, Proponents have made no showing, let alone a strong showing, that they are likely to succeed at the end of the day.”

“If, as the Attorney General [of the United States] has determined, heightened scrutiny is the appropriate standard of review, Proponents have no likelihood of success on the merits. They do not because they cannot seriously defend Proposition 8’s state-sponsored discrimination under that standard.”

“There can be no serious dispute that denying Plaintiffs and other gay and lesbian individuals throughout California their fundamental right to marry for an additional year constitutes a ‘substantial injur[y]’ that should weigh heavily against maintaining a stay. And the weight against continuing such provisional relief is particularly heavy here where the Attorney General of California has confirmed that lifting the stay will bring no harm to California or its citizens.”

“Proposition 8—and the stay that allows it to remain in force—is causing great damage. It is not merely deferring wedding dates, as Proponents suggest. For those near the end of life, it is denying the right to marry outright. But beyond the damage done to loving couples’ wishes to marry, Proposition 8 carries an unmistakable message—transmitted and enforced by the State and tolerated by this Court—that gay men and lesbians are members of a class of persons unworthy of the fundamental right of marriage and the “protection of equal laws.” Each day that California’s constitution stigmatizes and disables Plaintiffs and others like them, it inflicts great and lasting damage. That constitutional injustice must not be allowed to continue.”

You can read the full filing here (PDF).

AFER says this will be the final filing before the 9th Circuit issues its ruling.

Filed Under: California, News Tagged With: California, david boies, Federal Prop 8 Trial, gay marriage, News, proposition 8, ted olson

Recent Posts

  • Amanda Gorman, Tokyo Olympics, Putin’s Secret Estate, Dwyane Wade, Lady Gaga, Chris Evans, Hungary: HOT LINKS

    Amanda Gorman, Tokyo Olympics, Putin’s Secret Estate, Dwyane Wade, Lady Gaga, Chris Evans, Hungary: HOT LINKS

    4 hours ago
  • Joe Exotic is So Sure He’ll Be Pardoned by Trump, There’s Already a Limo Pickup Truck Waiting to Pick Him Up

    Joe Exotic is So Sure He’ll Be Pardoned by Trump, There’s Already a Limo Pickup Truck Waiting to Pick Him Up

    5 hours ago
  • Mitch McConnell: Insurrectionists Were Provoked by Trump  — WATCH

    Mitch McConnell: Insurrectionists Were Provoked by Trump — WATCH

    6 hours ago
  • Randy Rainbow Measures 2,102,400 Minutes of Donald’s Presidency in ‘Seasons of Trump’ Sendoff: WATCH

    Randy Rainbow Measures 2,102,400 Minutes of Donald’s Presidency in ‘Seasons of Trump’ Sendoff: WATCH

    9 hours ago
Previous Post: « Isle of Man Grants Civil Partnerships to Same-Sex Couples
Next Post: Kathy Griffin: Palin Army Would Never Survive Against the Gay Army »

Primary Sidebar

  • Amanda Gorman, Tokyo Olympics, Putin’s Secret Estate, Dwyane Wade, Lady Gaga, Chris Evans, Hungary: HOT LINKS

  • Joe Exotic is So Sure He’ll Be Pardoned by Trump, There’s Already a Limo Pickup Truck Waiting to Pick Him Up

  • Mitch McConnell: Insurrectionists Were Provoked by Trump — WATCH

Recent Posts

  • Amanda Gorman, Tokyo Olympics, Putin’s Secret Estate, Dwyane Wade, Lady Gaga, Chris Evans, Hungary: HOT LINKS

    Amanda Gorman, Tokyo Olympics, Putin’s Secret Estate, Dwyane Wade, Lady Gaga, Chris Evans, Hungary: HOT LINKS

    4 hours ago
  • Joe Exotic is So Sure He’ll Be Pardoned by Trump, There’s Already a Limo Pickup Truck Waiting to Pick Him Up

    Joe Exotic is So Sure He’ll Be Pardoned by Trump, There’s Already a Limo Pickup Truck Waiting to Pick Him Up

    5 hours ago
  • Mitch McConnell: Insurrectionists Were Provoked by Trump  — WATCH

    Mitch McConnell: Insurrectionists Were Provoked by Trump — WATCH

    6 hours ago
  • Randy Rainbow Measures 2,102,400 Minutes of Donald’s Presidency in ‘Seasons of Trump’ Sendoff: WATCH

    Randy Rainbow Measures 2,102,400 Minutes of Donald’s Presidency in ‘Seasons of Trump’ Sendoff: WATCH

    9 hours ago
  • Roberta Kaplan, Who Won Edie Windsor’s DOMA Case, is About to Put Trump in a Whole Lot of Legal Pain

    Roberta Kaplan, Who Won Edie Windsor’s DOMA Case, is About to Put Trump in a Whole Lot of Legal Pain

    10 hours ago
  • Photog Complains After Instagram Censors Sexy Underwear Shoot of TikToker Noah Beck: ‘What is So Offensive About a Confident Male Body?’

    Photog Complains After Instagram Censors Sexy Underwear Shoot of TikToker Noah Beck: ‘What is So Offensive About a Confident Male Body?’

    10 hours ago
  • 200,000 Flags Take Place of Americans on National Mall Ahead of Biden-Harris Inauguration: WATCH

    200,000 Flags Take Place of Americans on National Mall Ahead of Biden-Harris Inauguration: WATCH

    11 hours ago
  • Giuliani Bashed Provisional Ballots in 2020 Election While Casting One of His Own

    Giuliani Bashed Provisional Ballots in 2020 Election While Casting One of His Own

    11 hours ago
  • Biden Picks Dr. Rachel Levine for Asst. Health Secretary; Would Make History as First Senate-Confirmed Transgender Federal Official

    Biden Picks Dr. Rachel Levine for Asst. Health Secretary; Would Make History as First Senate-Confirmed Transgender Federal Official

    11 hours ago
  • Pamela Anderson Pleads for Trump to Pardon Julian Assange: ‘This is Why He’s President’ — WATCH

    Pamela Anderson Pleads for Trump to Pardon Julian Assange: ‘This is Why He’s President’ — WATCH

    12 hours ago

Most Commented

  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Towleroad
  • Towleroad on Social Media
  • Privacy Policy

Footer

Copyright © 2021 · Log in