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Just The Facts: The Perils Of Expert Testimony And Findings Of Fact In Gay Rights Litigation, Libby Adler
Just The Facts: The Perils Of Expert Testimony And Findings Of Fact In Gay Rights Litigation, Libby Adler
Libby S. Adler
Before Perry v. Schwarzenegger, striking down Proposition 8 in California, the judicial victories for same-sex marriage all had been decided on motions for summary judgment. None required the testimony of witnesses; none produced a trial transcript; none resulted in findings of fact. But Judge Vaughn Walker of the Northern District of California presided over a trial. He made eighty separate factual findings, many of them facts about gay people drawn from the testimony of plaintiffs’ experts – and many are contradictory. The plaintiffs called experts who testified that gay people are virtually indistinguishable from straight people, arguing that “like things …
Just The Facts: The Perils Of Expert Testimony And Findings Of Fact In Gay Rights Litigation, Libby Adler
Just The Facts: The Perils Of Expert Testimony And Findings Of Fact In Gay Rights Litigation, Libby Adler
Libby S. Adler
ABSTRACT Just the Facts: The Perils of Expert Testimony and Findings of Fact in Gay Rights Litigation Before Perry v. Schwarzenegger, striking down Proposition 8 in California, the judicial victories for same-sex marriage all had been decided on motions for summary judgment. None required the testimony of witnesses; none produced a trial transcript; none resulted in findings of fact. But Judge Vaughn Walker of the Northern District of California presided over a trial. He made eighty separate factual findings, many of them facts about gay people drawn from the testimony of plaintiffs’ experts – and many are contradictory. The plaintiffs …