ACSBlog

by Jeremy Leaming

As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to issue opinions in two cases involving questions of marriage equality, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera talked with me about his office’s role in challenging discriminatory laws in California that resulted in the federal constitutional challenge to the state’s Proposition 8.

In Hollingsworth v. Perry, the high court is considering constitutional challenges to Proposition 8, which bars California from recognizing same-sex marriages. The justices could avoid the constitutional questions if it were to dismiss the case on procedural grounds.

Herrera (pictured) during the 2013 ACS National Convention discussed why the San Francisco Attorney’s Office so aggressively challenged the state’s laws discriminating against lesbians and gay men and why he does not favor an incremental approach to securing marriage equality.

In the interview Herrera explains how his office helped spark the legal battle that eventually put Proposition 8 before the high court.

“It has been an honor and privilege for our office to have been involved in what is the civil rights issue of our time,” Herrera said. “And we like to think that our involvement at least played some role in really moving the debate and contributing to the tremendous progress that we have seen, with incredible rapidity over the course of the last several years on the issue of marriage equality.”

When asked whether the Supreme Court should avoid an opinion that would make all state bans on same-sex marriage constitutionally suspect, Herrera strongly supported an approach that would more quickly lead to marriage equality from coast to coast.

“I do not think we should be in the position of abiding discrimination,” he said. “And I think we’ve been quite clear that we think everybody is entitled to equal protection under the law irrespective of sexual orientation.”  

Herrera continued, “It’s about being on the right side of history, it’s about making sure that everybody is entitled to equal protection under the law. And I think that while there’s a political process going on it was a direct result of strong legal arguments and views that were made known. So I’m not one who, at least at this point, thinks that an incremental approach is something we need to follow. I think it’s time we deal with this issue once and for all.”

Watch entire interview below or visit this link.

by Jeremy Leaming

As some Senate Republicans continue to argue for removal of judgeships from the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Sen. Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is pushing forward for consideration of President Obama’s recent nominations to fill three vacancies on the Court.

Sen. Leahy announced yesterday that he is planning for a July 10 hearing before the Committee to consider one of the president’s nominees Patricia Ann Millett, a longtime appellate attorney who has earned the ABA’s highest rating. In announcing the hearing, Leahy took on Republicans’ claims that the D.C. Circuit has a light caseload and that the three current vacancies do not need to be filled. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has introduced a bill to strip judgeships from the D.C. Circuit and move them to other federal appeals court circuits. As the Constitutional Accountability Center has noted, Grassley’s measure has nothing to do with careful restructuring of the federal appeals court bench, and everything to do with obstructionism.

Leahy’s June 17 statement noted that some of the same Republicans now calling for judgeships to be stripped from the D.C. Circuit argued during George W. Bush’s administration the Circuit “should have 11 judgeships” and they voted to confirm his nominees for the “ninth, tenth, and eleventh seats ….” Leahy then ticked off a number of judicial nominations to other federal appeals courts that Republicans slow-walked, showing no concern about caseloads for those courts.

“The American people are not fooled,” Leahy said. “Senate Republicans are playing by different rules. In the past 30 years, Republican presidents have appointed 15 of the last 19 judges named to the D.C. Circuit. Now that these three vacancies exist during a Democratic presidency, Senate Republicans are trying to use legislation to lock in their partisan advantage.”

That advantage has served the interests of the Republican Party. As the D.C. Circuit is currently situated, it has a decisively right-wing tilt and has issued opinions harmful to workers’ rights, the environment and one widely panned opinion on the president’s power to use recess appointments to fill judicial and executive branch vacancies. That opinion, in Noel Canning v. NLRB, has been appealed by the administration.