U. S. Solicitor General Asks Supreme Court To Participate in Prop 8 Oral Argument

In a surprise move, U. S. Solicitor General, Donald B. Verrilli, Jr., has filed a motion with the U. S. Supreme Court seeking leave to argue the case against Proposition 8 along side lead counsel David Boies and Ted Olson.    The motion is somewhat unprecedented and will no doubt have the Christofascists screaming and howling.  For someone of my age who grew up through college being told that being gay was a form of mental illness, it is almost unbelievable now to see the President and Solicitor General argue that anti-gay laws deserve heighten scrutiny in terms of their constitutionality.  Here are highlights from Equality on Trial:

The Solicitor General of the United States, who filed an amicus brief at the Supreme Court yesterday in Hollingsworth v. Perry, the Prop 8 case, has also filed a request with the Court to have time to argue in the case along with the plaintiffs’ lawyers, Ted Olson and David Boies, and the opposing side’s Charles Cooper.

The docket page for the case has this entry:

Motion of the Solicitor General for leave to participate in oral argument as amicus curiae and for divided argument filed.

The government asks for ten minutes of argument time. The same-sex couples who are plaintiffs challenging the law have said, according to the filing, they would give up ten minutes of their argument time.

The motion notes that the special circumstances of this case warrant the government’s participation in the case: namely that the question of the level of judicial scrutiny that should be applied to laws targeting gays and lesbians as a class has not yet been decided by the Court. The filing also points out that the government’s position on the question is “unique”. The government’s brief in the case suggested that heightened judicial scrutiny applies and that when Prop 8 is viewed through that lens the reasons given for the amendment are not enough to sustain the law.

The Solicitor General’s request for more time also points out that some of the same arguments were raised in the challenge to Section 3 of DOMA, United States v. Windsor, so the Court’s approach to those issues are important to the government.

What will be truly delicious if the Supreme Court strikes down DOMA and Proposition 8 under a broad ruling applicable to all the states in America will be seeing hate merchants like Maggie Gallagher, Brian Brown, Tony Perkins, Peter LaBarbera and others either out of jobs or heading up organizations who will see a huge drop in contributions once the anti-gay marriage gravy train ends.   Imagine these folks having to get real jobs!