Public Access America

Perry v. Schwarzenegger Oral Arguments - U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. A panel of three federal judges heard arguments in the Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the Proposition 8 (or the California Marriage Protection Act) case. The 9th Circuit heard an appeal of an August ruling by U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker, who presided over a trial that found the ban on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional. The first hour of the hearing lawyers addressed issues of legal authority, or standing. The second hour addressed the merits of the appeal. Proposition 8, known informally as Prop 8, was a California ballot proposition and a state constitutional amendment passed in the November 2008 California state elections. The proposition was created by opponents of same-sex marriage in advance of the California Supreme Court's May 2008 appeal ruling, In re Marriage Cases, which followed the short-lived 2004 same-sex weddings controversy and found the previous ban on same-sex marriage (Proposition 22, 2000)