CALIFORNIA – In a response to efforts by Proposition 8 proponents to conceal video of the Proposition 8 trial from the public, the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) has launched a campaign for the full and unedited release of the Perry v. Schwarzenegger public trial footage.
AFER, the City and County of San Francisco and Media Coalition members – including The LA Times, CNN, The NY Times, FOX News, NBC News, The Associated Press and others – have filed briefs urging the court to release the videotapes of the public trial, especially since the transcripts have always been public.
In addition, AFER has asked the public on its website to sign an open letter asking the court to unseal the video recording of the trial and make it public.
“Why should the public be denied the opportunity to see and hear what happened in a public trial in a public courtroom in a case involving the constitutional rights of millions of people?” AFER attorney Theodore J. Boutrous Jr. said, “The proponents of Proposition 8 have repeatedly attempted to obscure and distort the facts of this trial because they simply have no case and they seem desperately anxious to prevent the American public from seeing the facts for themselves.”
AFER Board President Chad Griffin echoed sentiments once made by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in regards to another public disclosure case (Doe v. Reed) that, “Requiring people to stand up in public for their political acts fosters civic courage, without which democracy is doomed.”
To sign the open letter in support of the request for the full and unedited release of the trial tapes, go to afer.org/releasethetapes.
