Judges bar viewing of gay marriage trial videos: what they’re protecting

A federal appeals court rejected the release of video recordings of a landmark gay marriage trial, saying the trial judge's order to keep them under wraps must be honored to preserve judicial integrity.

|
Eric Risberg/AP
In this August 2010 file photo, Billy Bradford of Castro Valley, Calif., waves a pair of flags outside City Hall while same-sex couple line up to see if they can be married in San Francisco. A federal appeals court plans to announce Thursday, if it will unseal video recordings of the landmark trial on the constitutionality of California's same-sex marriage ban.

A federal appeals court on Thursday refused to allow the public release of video recordings of a landmark gay marriage trial conducted two years ago in San Francisco, citing the trial judge’s order to keep the recordings under wraps.

In a case that had drawn in the US Supreme Court at an earlier phase, the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a federal judge’s ruling permitting the trial recordings to be made available for viewing by members of the public.

The tapes were created at the instruction of former Chief US District Judge Vaughn Walker as he presided over a high profile trial in which two same-sex couples challenged the constitutionality of California’s ban on gay marriage.

The chief judge later ruled for the couples, declaring that California’s restrictions on marriage for gay and lesbian couples violated the US Constitution. (That ruling is also under appeal to the same Ninth Circuit panel that issued Thursday’s decision.)

Chief Judge Walker had initially allowed the simultaneous broadcast of the January 2010 trial proceedings to remote courthouses and on the Internet. But that order was reversed by the US Supreme Court, after supporters of the state’s Prop-8 same-sex marriage ban who had been called as witnesses expressed concern for their safety if their names and faces were broadcast across the country.

During the run-up to the ballot initiative on the issue, Prop-8 proponents complained that they had received threats and harassment from militant gay rights supporters.

The Supreme Court order effectively blocked any live broadcasts for the duration of the 12-day trial.

Despite the high court’s action, Chief Judge Walker announced that he would allow video recordings to continue to be made during the trial, but only for use by him in his judicial chambers while assessing the testimony and evidence. He later allowed the parties to obtain a copy of the videos.

After the trial, Judge Walker ordered that any copies of the trial recordings be maintained under seal, and thus unavailable for public viewing.

Following Judge Walker’s retirement from the bench, the Prop 8 case was taken over by the new chief judge, James Ware.

Last September, Chief Judge Ware granted a motion to allow the video recordings to be released, citing the public’s right to gain access to judicial records.

In reversing that decision, Appeals Court Judge Stephen Reinhardt said that Chief Judge Ware had abused his discretion by reversing a commitment made by the trial judge, Walker, that the tapes would remain private.

“The trial judge on several occasions unequivocally promised that the recording of the trial would be used only in chambers and not publicly broadcast,” Judge Reinhardt wrote.

“To revoke Chief Judge Walker’s assurances after proponents had reasonably relied on them would cause serious damage to the integrity of the judicial process,” Reinhardt said.

He added: “Litigants and the public must be able to trust the word of a judge if our justice system is to function properly.”

Rick Jacobs, chair of the gay rights group, Courage Campaign, said he hoped Judge Reinhardt’s decision does not “herald more bad news regarding the unconstitutionality of Prop 8.”

“We are disappointed in the Ninth Circuit’s decision to not release the videotapes from the historic Prop 8 hearing,” Mr. Jacobs said in a statement. “In our minds, it never made sense that transcripts from the hearing could be easily accessed by anyone but not the videotapes.”

The case is Perry v. Brown (11-17255).

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Judges bar viewing of gay marriage trial videos: what they’re protecting
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2012/0202/Judges-bar-viewing-of-gay-marriage-trial-videos-what-they-re-protecting
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe