The Year in LGBT Law: A Changed Landscape of Unexpected Developments -- and Waiting
Posted by Chris Geidner |
December 30, 2011 12:15 PM
http://www.metroweekly.com/poliglot/2011/12/the-year-in-lgbt-law-a-changed.html (http://www.metroweekly.com/poliglot/2011/12/the-year-in-lgbt-law-a-changed.html)
On Jan. 1, 2011, most LGBT legal commentators were ready for a federal appellate court ruling on the constitutionality of Proposition 8 -- or at least a decision on whether the initiatives' proponents had a right to be there in the first place. Challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act were under way on the East Coast -- from Massachusetts to Connecticut to New York -- but the Proposition 8 challenge looked like it was on the fast track to the Supreme Court.
But, on Jan. 4, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit sent a certified question about the legal role of initiative proponents under California law to the California Supreme Court -- a move that delayed a Ninth Circuit decision and appears to be keeping people waiting into 2012.