NOM BLOG

Prop 8 Supporters Go After Judge Walker's Ilegal Release of Videotape

 

Supporters of Proposition 8 in California have filed a motion in response to Judge Walker's decision to show video recordings of the Prop 8 trial testimony which since have become public and widely disseminated.

UPDATE: "NOM RESPONDS TO NEWS JUDGE VAUGHN WALKER BLATANTLY VIOLATED JUDICIAL RULES, RELEASED VIDEO IN DEFIANCE OF U.S. SUPREME COURT"

A key excerpt from the Motion:

On February 18, 2011, Judge Walker delivered a speech at the University of Arizona in which he played a portion of the video recording of the cross- examination of one of Proponents’ expert witnesses in the trial of this case. The speech was video taped by C-SPAN, and it was subsequently broadcast on C- SPAN several times beginning on March 22...

By publicly displaying the video recording of a portion of the trial testimony, Judge Walker (1) violated his own order placing the video recording of the trial under seal; (2) ignored the clear terms of the district court’s Local Rule 77-3, which prohibits the broadcast or other transmission of trial proceedings beyond “the confines of the courthouse”; (3) contravened the longstanding policies of the Judicial Conference of the United States and the Judicial Council of this Court prohibiting public broadcast of trial proceedings; and (4) defied the United States Supreme Court’s prior decision in this case ruling that an earlier attempt by then- Chief Judge Walker to publicly broadcast the trial proceedings “complied neither with existing rules or policies nor the required procedures for amending them.”

Here is is the complete text:

Motion to Order Return of Video Recording

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