Today at 1pm Pacific time, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments regarding marriage equality for Idaho, Nevada (my home state), and Hawaii.
You can watch via YouTube below or by going to www.ca9.uscourts.gov and clicking the website’s link, “Live Oral Arguments.”
Idaho will get a full hour (equally split for both sides) for oral arguments. Nevada will follow with 30 minutes total, and then Hawaii will have 20 minutes to make each side’s case.
If you want to follow the Twitter conversation, look for hashtag #9thCircuit
Left to right: Sara Geiger, Megan Lanz, Peter Renn, Thomas Wheatley, Marek Bute, Kelly Dove
Last night I attended a “Send Off” event here in Las Vegas for the plaintiffs in Nevada’s same-sex marriage appeal to be heard in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco Monday.
Several of the plaintiffs were in attendance including Megan Lanz & Sara Gieger, Fletcher Whitwell & Greg Flamer and Antioco Carrillo & Theodore Small.
Freedom To Marry‘s Thomas Wheatley moderated the event meant to catch the Las Vegas LGBT community up to date on how Nevada got to this point in the marriage equality timeline. Lawyers Peter Renn from Lambda Legal and Marek Bute & Kelly Dove of Snell & Wilmer provided facts, figures and their thoughts on the outcome of the 9th Circuit appeal.
Clearly the team and plaintiffs are very upbeat about the case. The energy in the room was relaxed, confident and positive. No lawyer-esque kind of false posturing.
Peter Renn recapped the history of the case and explained that even though the plaintiffs lost in 2012, he considered the ruling at the time an outlier that is even more antiquated today in light of over 30 rulings in favor of marriage equality across the country. That thinking was that if same-sex marriage were allowed, heterosexual couples would cease to marry because the union had been “devalued.” As we all know, that reasoning has lost over and over again.
Megan Lanz, when asked why she chose to be a part of this lawsuit said, “I wanted to speak up for what’s right. I want to be a good example for our daughter, and to represent others who may feel they don’t have a voice.”
Snell & Wilmer’s Kelly Dove explained the legal team’s satisfaction with the three judges selected for the 9th Circuit panel and recapped their past rulings which would seem to bode well for the LGBT community.
Of the three judges, Judge Reinhardt has the richest history of the three when it comes to LGBT cases. Reinhardt wrote the 2012 opinion that upheld district judge Vaughn Walker’s ruling that found California’s Proposition 8 unconstitutional. And, he also wrote the opinion in SmithKline Beecham v. Abbott Labs which ruled that discrimination against LGBT people is subject to heightened scrutiny.
Judge Berzon joined with Reinhardt on the SmithKline ruling. Plus, her court history shows a progressive bent in her rulings.
Judge Gould is credited with ruling on a major LGBT case regarding heightened scrutiny involving Maj. Margaret Witt, a former Air Force flight nurse who was discharged under DADT. Gould wrote the 9th Circuit opinion that a discharge under DADT must be subject to heightened scrutiny.
So, the panel looks fairly positive for the plaintiffs.
The legal team did note that since the governor of Nevada and the Attorney General have both decided not to defend the marriage ban, only the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage (who initiated the ban in the first place) are the only opposition to the appeal.
Referencing Hollingsworth v. Perry, where SCOTUS ruled that backers of a ballot measure did not have a legal right to be in court to defend the proposition, Dove expressed confidence that if the ban is struck down at the 9th Circuit, no appeal can be made by the Coalition due to lack of standing, and marriage equality could come to Nevada fairly quickly.
Also attending was legendary LGBT activist Cleve Jones, who expressed his thanks to the plaintiffs for coming forward and working through the lengthy life disruption to raise their voices for so many gay and lesbian couples in Nevada.
And with that, we look to Monday and the oral arguments that will be held at 1pm. The hearings will be streamed and you can watch by going to www.ca9.uscourts.gov and click on the link under the beige-colored bar labeled “Live Oral Arguments.”
According to Equality Case Files, the three-judge panel selected for next week’s 9th Circuit Court of Appeals hearings on marriage equality bode well for the good guys.
The Nevada, Idaho and Hawaii cases will be heard consecutively next Monday, September 8th beginning at 4pm in San Francisco.
Berzon joined Reinhardt in SmithKline. Gould wrote majority in Witt v. Air Force. — Equality Case Files (@EQCF) September 1, 2014
Reinhardt wrote majority in Prop 8 case and SmithKline (latter held sexual orientation must withstand heightened scrutiny). #9thCircuit#ssm — Equality Case Files (@EQCF) September 1, 2014
All judges on 9th Circ panel for ID HI & NV marriage cases have supported heightened scrutiny for sexual orientation discrimination @EQCF — Dr. Gregory Herek (@DrGregoryHerek) September 1, 2014
Mark your calendars – September 8th is the date that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear 20 minutes of oral arguments in the case of Beverly Sevcik v. Brian Sandoval.
Eight couples sued the state of Nevada over it’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in 2012. That judge upheld the law sending the case to appeals.
What has changed since 2012, you might ask? In February of this year, the Nevada Attorney General dropped opposition to the lawsuit saying due to recent rulings the law was “indefensible.” With the state’s governor and AG stepping aside from a case they say is unwinnable, only the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage is left to argue it alone.
Currently, same-sex couples can marry in 19 states and the District of Columbia.
Openly transgender candidate Lauren Scott won the Republican primary election for Nevada Assembly District 30 last night, beating out Adam Khan, who have been endorsed by the Nevada Republican Assembly (NVRA).
Scott has been endorsed by Governor Brian Sandoval.
Nevada Assembly District 30 has a slight Democrat voter advantage but a moderate GOP candidate has an opportunity to win the general election in a year with low voter turnout.
Nevada Democrats picked “None of the above” as their top choice for Democratic candidate for governor yesterday.
Since the 1970s, due to the Watergate scandal, Nevada instituted the “None of the above” option as a nod to the apathy many felt about politicians. It still stands today.
Yesterday’s vote showed 30% of Democrats who voted chose “None of the above.” The second highest vote tally was for former state economic development director Robert Goodman. He will face off against Republican Governor Brian Sandoval.
Goodman will be the nominee because state law reads, “Only votes cast for the named candidates shall be counted in determining nomination or election to any statewide office or presidential nominations or the selection of presidential electors.”
Sandoval has one of the highest approval ratings in the country for a sitting governor and has long been expected to coast to reelection.
Fourth-degree black belt and all-around stunner Nia Sanchez was crowned Miss USA 2014, the biggest battle of the now former Miss Nevada’s life being the struggle to hold back all the tears after her name was called at the end of the three-hour beauty-and-personality-fest, hosted this year by Giuliana Rancic and Thomas Roberts.
She had clasped hands and traded well wishes with first runner-up Miss North Dakota, Audra Mari, as they waited out those final seconds–but it was Sanchez who stood alone with the bouquet, the sash and—of course—the tiara.
Nevada, my current home state, has finally gotten a date for arguments in the Ninth Circuit Court regarding a challenge of the state’s same-sex marriage ban.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered Sevcik v. Sandoval, Lambda Legal’s challenge to Nevada’s same-sex marriage ban, to be placed on their argument calendar.
The case will be argued some time in September, though the order doesn’t specify an exact date.
Last night, the plaintiffs filed a request with the appeals court to schedule their case no later than a separate challenge to Idaho’s same-sex marriage ban.
The Nevada case has been on appeal in the Ninth Circuit since December 2012, while the Idaho appeal was only docketed a couple of weeks ago.
The original case was decided against the plaintiffs on September 26, 2012. Although briefs were filed months ago, the appeal has been put on hold while the court looked to other cases.
Yesterday in Las Vegas, the Nevada Republican party droppped platforms opposing abortions and gay marriage, while endorsing Gov. Sandoval for second term.
Amid raucous debate, Nevada Republican Party conventioneers on Saturday stripped opposition to gay marriage and abortion from the party platform and endorsed Gov. Brian Sandoval for governor in the June 10 primary despite misgivings by conservatives, his criticism of the process and his absence from the meeting.
By a show of hands, convention-goers adopted the platform as proposed by a separate committee without the two planks on marriage and abortion, following the Clark County GOP’s lead in removing hot-button social issues from the party’s statement of its principles.
Some 520 delegates attended the convention, but less than half were present when the platform was adopted at about 7:30 p.m. Little debate preceded the vote, a far contrast to earlier in day.
State party Chairman Michael McDonald said it was a successful convention at the end of the day. “I think it was about inclusion, not exclusion,” McDonald said, referring to the platform. “This is where the party is going.”
Log Cabin Republicans react via press release:
“The state party has made it clear that they want a ‘bigger tent’ and has welcomed us into it,” said Ed Williams, President of Log Cabin Republicans of Nevada and a delegate at the convention. “Today’s historic vote positions the Log Cabin Republicans of Nevada and our allies to be even more effective in demonstrating that the Republican Party is the party of limited government, personal responsibility and individual liberty.”
Log Cabin Republicans National Executive Director Gregory T. Angelo added: “Once again, our local Log Cabin Republicans members have made a critical difference pushing the GOP toward the right side of history by going where others fear to tread — or cannot tread because of their party affiliation. The Republican Party is at a crossroads: in a year where the Massachusetts GOP rolled back the clock and added divisive social issues to its platform, the state Republican Party responsible for nominating Sharron Angle in 2010 seems to have finally learned to focus on the issues that truly matter to voters, which will lead to massive Republican wins at the ballot box this fall.”
Last month Nevada Gov. Sandoval and Carson City Clerk-Recorder Alan Glover withdrew their arguments in support of the marriage ban after the Ninth Circuit’s ruling in SmithKline Beecham v. Abbott Laboratories that discriminatory classifications based upon sexual orientation must receive heightened scrutiny and should be presumed unconstitutional.
The heightened scrutiny standard is much more difficult to meet and rendered the state of Nevada’s arguments in its original brief defending the marriage ban “no longer tenable in the Ninth Circuit,” as Nevada’s Attorney General conceded in a statement released last week.
The withdrawal of the two government defendants leaves only the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage, which the U.S. District Court had allowed to intervene, defending the marriage ban.
UPDATE: Lambda Legal advises the court date has been rescheduled due to high case load in the 9th Circuit. Looking at a May or June court date at this point.
