Prop 8 lawyer David Boies: ‘SCOTUS won’t give a gay-bashing opinion’

[WillParkinson]

Prop 8 lawyer David Boies: ‘SCOTUS won’t give a gay-bashing opinion’
By John Culhane, Professor of Law, Widener University
05.03.2010 9:39am EDT

David Boies walked right into the Green Room where I’d just settled in to wait for him, shook my hand, and sat down. His escort, Equality Forum’s Communications Director Chip Alfred, reminded me that I had five minutes, and strode briskly away.

Boies was about to be honored (along with his new BFF Ted Olson, who was not in attendance) as an International Role Model at Equality Forum’s Annual International Equality Dinner. The two of them are litigating the challenge to Proposition 8 (and really to the ban on same-sex marriages more generally), and the case is widely expected to go all the way to the Supreme Court.

As the week-long event’s “official blogger,” I was one of several to get a few minutes of face time with him, and I wasn’t going to waste it.

I knew it would be no use trying to knock him off his pegs; Boies has argued before the Supreme Court many times, most notably in the infamous Bush v. Gore case, where he argued for the losing side. He’d always struck me as implacable in a professorial way: relaxed, bright, and comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty. Nothing about his personal demeanor or mildly ruffled appearance – a bit surprising, given the glitzy, 200-dollar-a-plate event – suggested that my impressions had been off-base.

http://www.365gay.com/opinion/prop-8-lawyer-david-boies-scotus-wont-give-a-gay-bashing-opinion/

[Unvanguard]

1. Justice Kennedy won't join a "gay-bashing" opinion; nor will the four liberals.

But would he go so far as to rule in favor of marriage equality? I am doubtful.

[joeybee12]

4. Agreed...he was the one who wrote the opinion overturning

Hardwick v Georgia...if memory serves me correctly.

[Unvanguard]

5. He did, but the case you're thinking of is Bowers v. Hardwick.

It was a Georgia statute, though.

[joeybee12]

12. Thanks!

Actually, I think they overturned it when they declared Colorado's Amendment 2 unconstiutional...interstingly, or maybe not, O'Connor didn't vote to oevrturn...swing vote my ass.

[Unvanguard]

13. No, they overturned it in 2003, with Lawrence v. Texas.

Justice O'Connor did not join the majority opinion overturning Bowers, but she wrote a concurring opinion saying that the challenged Texas statute violated the Equal Protection Clause, so she still voted with the majority to invalidate it.

Romer v. Evans, the case you refer to regarding Colorado's Amendment 2, did not directly overturn Bowers, but was widely considered to have undermined it. It's hard to say both "Gay people can be criminalized for the sex they have" and "You can't discriminate against gay people."

[joeybee12]

14. I'm confusing all of them!

Thanks!

[sui generis]

2. I don't know. I think SCOTUS is out of touch with reality.

they never cease to amaze me with their legal "opinions" that turn more on linguistics than teleology.

[LiberalFighter]

3. I watched Boies during his arguments in 2000 in Florida

I was not impressed with him. If anything, he was not qualified to debate election laws or constitutionality of election laws.

[RetiredTrotskyite]

6. That's As May Be...

but he got Bush into office. Now let's see if he can work his magic again for us. Unlike Obama, he at least seems to want to help us.

[Unvanguard]

8. No, Ted Olson got Bush into office. Boies argued for Gore. n/t

[RetiredTrotskyite]

9. You're Right

Olsen got Bush in. Sorry about that.

[LiberalFighter]

11. And Boies was not effective back in 2000.

He didn't understand election law. He was all muddle about it.

[racaulk]

7. I sure hope he's right.

I'm not convinced that he is, but I'm trying to remain hopeful.

:hi:

[WillParkinson]

10. I'm in that club with you...

Cautiously hopeful. And scared out of my wits.