equal rites

California Prop 8 Trial Comes to a Close

Closing arguments ended Wednesday in the legal battle to overturn California’s Prop 8, a trial that has lasted six months and is likely to head to the Supreme Court regardless of how district-court judge Vaughn Walker rules on the state’s gay-marriage ban passed in 2008.

Charles Cooper, who led the defense, said in his closing arguments that there is reason to believe that allowing same-sex marriage would undermine heterosexual marriage and that “you don’t need to have evidence” to prove that the purpose of marriage is to bear and raise children.

Ted Olson and David Boies, arguing for the ban to be overturned, maintained, as they have throughout the trial, that the ban discriminates against a segment of the population, denying them the fundamental right to marry.

At the end of the day, ‘I don’t know’ and ‘I don’t have to present any evidence,’ with all respect to Mr. Cooper, doesn’t cut it,” Olson said Wednesday.


Walker, who spent the final day pressing both sides on the purpose of marriage, is expected to announce his ruling in a few weeks.

California gay marriage trial ends dramatically [Reuters]

California Prop 8 Trial Comes to a Close