So, that is over. Well, it is minus the little part about Judge Vaughn Walker issuing his ruling. But both sides — AFER's Olson-Boies and ProtectMarriage.com's Charles Cooper — have rested their cases. And even if you're a supporter of Prop 8, you've got to admit: the defense blew it.
In Perry v. Schwarzenegger, it was Olson and Boies, on behalf of their gay couple defendants, who were required to prove their case: That Prop 8 is unconstitutional, was motivated by animus, and must be struck down. They did it. More than adequately. And they didn't just make the legal argument (which we're well aware is the most important), but the logical one — how legalizing same-sex marriage won't keep straight couples from getting married or having kids, and how re-authorizing marriages for gay couples will make more families more stable. And without question, Cooper's roster of "experts" completely annihilated ProtectMarriage.com's core arguments. There's just no way around it; their own witnesses admitted laws like the Defense of Marriage Act, similar in many ways to Prop 8, are discriminatory. And how legalizing same-sex marriage is — wait for it, wait for it — a good thing.
The entire production was an embarrassment for the defense. That is an objective observation. And Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage (which was not a defendant in the case), accidentally confirmed as much in a live chat following Wednesday's closing arguments.
Ah yes, the closing arguments. The final say from Olson-Boies and Cooper, as they worked to answer Judge Walker's last litmus test before he concludes the future of Prop 8, and marriage discrimination in California, in the next few weeks.
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