[Seth-Trips] Lockyer v. San Francisco, Tuesday, Civic Center

[Seth David Schoen]

I was just reminded that the Supreme Court of California will hear
arguments in Lockyer, Atty. Gen., v. City and County of San Francisco and
Lewis v. Alfaro on Tuesday, May 25, at 9:00a.  (The Court is located in
the San Francisco Civic Center at 350 McAllister Street, fourth floor.)

It will be extremely difficult to get a seat, and I'm probably not
going to try to get one for myself.  I would predict based on my
experience at the U.S. Supreme Court that you'll need to sleep
overnight outside the Court in order to get in.  (Thousands of people
who live right here in San Francisco care passionately about this
issue, never mind the rest of the state and the country.  Cases with
much less public interest routinely result in full courtrooms; there's
probably more public interest in this case than in any other case
before this Court this decade.)  There will also be multiple overflow
rooms available with a live official video feed of the arguments.

The arguments Tuesday are not expected to focus directly on whether
same-sex marriage is or is not legal in California, although they may
offer a preview of the future arguments over that issue.  Instead,
they will probably focus on the narrower question of whether or not
Mayor Newsom has to comply with laws he believes are unconstitutional,
in the absence of a court judgment.

The Court is an easy walk from the Civic Center BART station, but,
again, you will probably need to show up far in advance -- perhaps
even to gain admission to an overflow room.  There may also be
opportunities for interested parties to demonstrate or
counterdemonstrate in the Civic Center plaza during the argument.

For more information:

http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/courts/supreme/
http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/courts/supreme/sfmarriages/

-- 
Seth David Schoen <schoen at loyalty.org> | Very frankly, I am opposed to people
     http://www.loyalty.org/~schoen/   | being programmed by others.
     http://vitanuova.loyalty.org/     |     -- Fred Rogers (1928-2003),
                                       |        464 U.S. 417, 445 (1984)