FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Official Proponents of Proposition 8 Request Return of Trial Video Tapes
Former judge used tapes in speech, aired nationally
SACRAMENTO -- The official proponents of Proposition 8, the voter approved initiative limiting marriage to a man and a woman in California, have asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to order the now-retired trial judge in the Perry v. Brown case to return a video tape of the trial proceedings, which had been sealed in the court record, that the judge kept upon leaving office.
The following statement can be attributed to Andrew Pugno, general counsel for the Prop 8 proponents:
“The American people deserve a court system that upholds the integrity of the judicial process. Judge Walker’s public showing of the Perry trial video was prohibited by governing court rules, court orders, and the U.S. Supreme Court. His actions directly contradict his solemn commitment in open court that he would use the recording only in his private chambers to assist him in evaluating the case. This kind of behavior threatens to undermine the public’s confidence in the federal court system.”
The following is an excerpt from the motion filed by Prop 8 proponents:
What’s done is done. Judge Walker’s speech, and C-SPAN’s public dissemination of it, cannot be undone, and given that Judge Walker has recently retired from the federal bench, he cannot be disciplined. See In re Charge of Judicial Misconduct, 91 F.3d 90, 91 (9th Cir. Judicial Council 1996). But he can be ordered to cease further unlawful and improper disclosures of the trial recordings, or any portion thereof, and to return to this Court any copies of the trial recordings in his possession, custody, or control. We respectfully request that he be ordered to do so. We also request that Appellees be ordered to return their copies of the trial recordings, which were provided to them by then-Chief Judge Walker for their use in closing argument below and in the appeal to this Court. Putting aside that providing copies of the trial recordings to Appellees also violated Local Rule 77-3, the policies of the Judicial Conference and this Court’s Judicial Council, and then-Chief Judge Walker’s assurances in open court, the purpose for which they were provided has now been fulfilled, and Appellees’ continued possession of the recordings can no longer be justified.
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