An appeals court in California on
Monday suspended a lower court's ruling ordering the release of video
of last year's trial that resulted in declaring Proposition 8,
California's gay marriage ban, unconstitutional, the AP reported.
U.S. District Court Judge James Ware
last month ruled that “No compelling reasons exist for continued
sealing of the digital recording of the trial.”
Protect Marriage, the coalition of
mostly religious groups that sponsored Proposition 8, appealed the
decision. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed
Ware's ruling pending a decision by the court, which has scheduled a
hearing for December 5.
Proponents of Proposition 8 turned to
Ware after U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker, now retired, used a
clip from the 2010 trial he presided over during a speech he gave in
February in Arizona. They asked the court to stop Walker from
showing the video again. Opponents volleyed back with a request to
make the recordings available for broadcast.
Protect Marriage lawyers argues that
release of the recording would put defense witnesses at risk of
harassment from opponents of the constitutional amendment which
overruled a 2008 California Supreme Court decision that legalized gay
marriage in the state.