Prop 8 video made public
A Federal Court district judge has ruled that video recordings of a court challenge to a ballot initiative that stripped same-sex couples of their right to marry in California in 2008 must be made public.
Backers of the Proposition 8 ballot initiative argued that they would be subject to harassment if the videos were made public.
However, Judge Vaughn Walker, who presided over the case, was prepared to allow real-time streaming of the trial to courthouses in other cities, and YouTube to post video after each day’s proceedings.
Supporters of the ban turned to the US Supreme Court to prevent the case from being broadcast.
They then tried to get copies of tapes of the proceedings removed from Walker’s possession after he showed video of part of the trial to law students in Arizona, which later appeared on the C-Span channel.
Judge James Ware found that the recordings constituted public records and should therefore be publicly available.
Walker overturned the ban on same-sex marriage in 2010, but supporters are yet to exhaust their avenues for appeal.
