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Prop. 8 Trial Blog: Tam brought into the trial via video

By Tue Tran, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, on January 13, 2010 11:32 PM

By Tue Tran, Co-Editor-in-Chief -

The US Supreme Court, in a 5-4 vote, blocked the broadcast of the Proposition 8 trial. The court stated that with the ruling, it was not “expressing any view on whether such trials should be broadcast,” but that it was not ready to embrace cameras in federal courts. The majority believed that the broadcast “threatened to harm the fair trial rights of Proposition 8’s defenders,” according to Mercury News.

The third day began with the second part of George Chauncey of Yale University who specializes in the history of discrimination against lesbians and gays. During his testimony, the plaintiffs lawyers played a video of Willam Tam, who had equated legalizing same-sex marriage to legalizing prostitution and underage sex. Tam had also stated during the Proposition 8 campaign that allowing gays to be married would encourage youths to become gay.

The trial will resume tomorrow with Edmund Egan taking the stand, who is San Francisco’s chief economist.