On Dec. 6, attorneys appealed Judge Vaughn Walker’s August 2010 ruling that California’s Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage in the state, is unconstitutional. Defense attorney Charles Cooper, and David Boies and Theodore B. Olson, representing the pro-gay American Foundation for Equal Rights, launched their arguments in front of a three-judge federal appellate panel in San Francisco.
Cooper argued that the state had a vested interest in upholding “traditional” marriage because it is associated with childbearing and human survival. According to The New York Times, it was the same stance, used unsuccessfully, to convince Judge Walker to maintain the ban on same-sex marriage back in August. Boies and Olson claimed that the state’s interests were not at stake, and that Prop 8 unconstitutionally restricted a fundamental individual right.
The panel does not have a timetable for issuing its opinion–and even when it does, legal arguments are expected to continue in high courts. Many legal experts see the battle over Prop 8 reaching the Supreme Court within a few years.
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