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Old 11-25-2008, 02:44 PM
Bro. Parrish
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Legal experts puzzled over California justice's
seeming reversal on Prop. 8


Justice Joyce L. Kennard has been a reliable supporter of gay rights in the past, but last week she was the only Supreme Court jurist to vote AGAINST hearing legal challenges to the gay-marriage ban.

a close reading of the court's one-page order suggests that gay-rights advocates may have lost a usually predictable ally in their effort to overturn Proposition 8.

"It definitely isn't a good sign," said UCLA Law Professor Brad Sears, an expert on sexual-orientation law...

Although it is impossible to know Kennard's thinking -- justices cannot comment on pending cases -- others saw reason to suspect that Kennard may not be buying the argument that Proposition 8 was an improper revision of the state constitution.

The order said Kennard would hear a new case to resolve the validity of the 18,000 same-sex marriages "without prejudice" -- a phrase that indicates she was open to arguments on the issue. But she declined to modify her denial of the Proposition 8 challenges with those same words.

"What she seems to be saying is that she doesn't think it is worth reviewing," said UC Berkeley Law Professor Jesse H. Choper.

The legal challenges are novel. Many scholars believe the court is more likely to uphold the validity of the marriages that occurred before the election than to overturn Proposition 8. The court will decide both questions in a single ruling next year, probably in the spring or early summer.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...,1631563.story