Gay marriage in federal courts

[Rachel Sawyer]

I've been reading and hearing some about gay marriage heading to the federal courts but am having difficulty finding much about it. Does anyone know exactly where it's at? Also any links to news and articles about it would be great! Thanks

[Lana]

Have you gone to 365 Gay, Gayagenda.com, Afterellen...etc?
I havent been keeping up on them but would think that they'd have links if nothing else.

[SistersTalk]

Here's a more recent article about the issue:

http://www.baywindows.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=glbt&sc2=new...

The lawsuit, Perry v. Schwarzenegger, was filed in federal court in San Francisco in May on behalf of two same-sex couples. It charges that California’s Proposition 8 violates the U.S. Constitution’s explicit guarantees to due process of law and equal protection of the law.

A group of gay legal and political groups initially issued a statement warning against premature lawsuits, saying they could lead to an ill-timed decision from the U.S. Supreme Court that could set back the movement toward equal marriage rights for same-sex couples.

But one month later, three of those same groups - the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), and the LGBT Project of the ACLU - filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the Perry lawsuit. The three gay legal groups are representing three San Francisco gay organizations and, in July, asked to participate in the lawsuit as intervenors.

In a lawsuit, an intervenor is a person or group who is not named as plaintiff or defendant but who will be significantly affected by the lawsuit’s outcome. If the court approves a person or group to become an intervenor, that person or group becomes a third party to the lawsuit, supporting either the plaintiff or defendant’s position. As such, they have certain rights as party to the lawsuit. (Otherwise, outside parties are limited to filing friend-of-the-court briefs expressing their personal interest or expertise on a matter within the lawsuit.)

[SistersTalk]

And here's another article about it:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/05/new-front-in-prop-8-b...

A new front in the battle over gay marriage in California will open today when two prominent attorneys will challenge Proposition 8 in federal court.
The attorneys, who argued on opposite sides of the Bush vs. Gore election case in 2000, will hold a press conference announcing a federal lawsuit and calls for the restoration of gay marriage until the case is decided.

Former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore B. Olson and David Boies, who represented then-Vice President Al Gore in the contested election, have joined forces to tackle the same-sex-marriage issue, which has deeply divided Californians and left 18,000 gay couples married last year in legal isolation. The lawyers are scheduled to appear this morning at the BIltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

In a project of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, Olson and Boies have united to represent two same-sex couples filing suit after being denied marriage licenses because of Proposition 8.

Their lawsuit, to be filed in U.S. District Court in California, calls for an injunction against the proposition, allowing immediate reinstatement of marriage rights for same-sex couples.

[jaysays]

Massachusetts filed suit as well:

Massachusetts Sues United States

From Reuters

The one with the most news worthiness is the one filed by Olson and Bois

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/27/MNDC17S...





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