The No on 8 crowd is getting a taste of its own medicine. They are being ordered to turn documents over to the courts. I’m not sure I like it because it is a tit-for-tat move in the cat and mouse game between the parties. I don’t like the principle that political strategic plans should be reviewed by the courts, no matter whose ox is being gored.
U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker issued a warning on Sunday afternoon to Equality California and the ACLU, giving them 48 hours to turn over documents sought by the proponents of Proposition 8. If the groups fail to comply, they will be held in contempt of court and fined $2,000 per day each, according to the order.
The order is a side issue in the landmark trial to challenge the constitutionality of California’s same-sex marriage ban. But that side issue has turned into a monumental struggle by pro-gay groups who opposed Proposition 8. The groups said they do not believe they should have to turn over hundreds of thousands of emails and other internal documents to the “Yes on 8” coalition that proposed the anti-gay law.
Here’s an irony: Equality California and the ACLU are not a party to the lawsuit that is challenging Proposition 8, which the “Yes on 8” coalition is defending in court. And yet the “Yes on 8” coalition, as part of its defense of the initiative, successfully sought the order requiring the “No on 8” groups to turn over the documents as part of the original trial proceeding in Perry v. Schwarzenegger. The plaintiffs in that lawsuit had previously sought and received similar documents from the “Yes on 8” groups, (which included Little Old Me. JRM)
I didn’t like it, or think it appropriate, when they did this to us. I wrote about it here, reprinted on the Ruth Institute website.