March 4, 2008

High court hears marriage case

The California Supreme Court -- as high courts usually are -- was a tough read today as it heard the state's gay marriage case. And the breakdown may not fall along traditional partisan or ideological lines. Justice Moreno, appointed by Gray Davis, seemed skeptical of the case presented by supporters of same-sex marriage, while Justice Kennard, a Deukmejian appointee, sounded sympathetic. Kennard, in fact, asked a couple of tough questions to the state lawyers defending the law, and then asked the exact same questions to the lawyer for the city of San Francisco, to whom they amounted to softballs which she promptly smacked out of the park. Justice Chin, a Wilson appointee, at one point asked the city's lawyer if the lawyers for the other side hadn't just made "your argument for you?" The only justice who seemed certain to go one way or the other was Marvin Baxter, the Deukmejian appointee, who sounded as if he was set against same-sex marriage.

Posted by dweintraub on March 4, 2008 3:55 PM