Kenji Yoshino weighs in on the same-sex marriage cases facing the Supreme Court

On Friday, December 7, the Supreme Court agreed to hear two cases on same-sex marriage: United States v. Windsor, which contests the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), and Hollingsworth v. Perry, which challenges the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the 2008 California ballot initiative banning same-sex marriage. The two Proposition 8 litigators are NYU Law Trustee David Boies (LL.M. '67) and Theodore Olson, a member of the Dwight D. Opperman Institute of Judicial Administration’s board of directors, who were interviewed by Rachel Maddow earlier this year at an NYU Law symposium.

Kenji YoshinoOver the weekend, Kenji Yoshino, Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law, made several media appearances discussing the issues that United States v. Windsor and Hollingsworth v. Perry will bring to the Supreme Court. In an appearance on the Melissa Harris-Perry Show, Yoshino set out the constitutional background of the two cases. On the Rachel Maddow Show, Yoshino emphasized the importance of trial records in civil rights cases facing the Supreme Court, pointing to the successful record of the Perry case.

Slate editor Emily Bazelon cited Yoshino in a column arguing that same-sex marriage could be "the civil rights case of our generation."  Talking to Adam Liptak of the New York Times, Yoshino discussed the possibility of what he describes as an "eight-state solution" in the Perry case, which would affect California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon and Rhode Island. Elsewhere in the New York Times, Yoshino was cited in a profile of Edith Windsor, the plaintiff in United States v. Windsor. Writing at SCOTUSblog, Yoshino elaborated on the eight-state solution, and also laid out additional possible courses of action available to the Supreme Court as it considers both cases. Arguments in the two cases will take place at the end of March, and a decision will be expected at the end of June.

Watch video of Kenji Yoshino on the Rachel Maddow Show:

Watch video of Kenji Yoshino on the Melissa Harris-Perry Show:

Posted December 10, 2012