Never let it be said that the Supreme Court can’t do more than one thing at a time. The Court heard oral arguments in nine cases yesterday and today, including a well-publicized argument this morning about furloughing state workers. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the Court was dealing with another high-profile issue: whether the Governor and/or Attorney General are legally obligated to appeal a federal district court’s ruling that invalidated Proposition 8, the anti-same-sex-marriage initiative.
Yesterday, Prop. 8 proponents filed with the Court a petition for review from a Court of Appeal summary denial of a writ petition that sought to compel Governor Schwarzenegger or Attorney General Brown to defend Prop. 8 before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court immediately called for Schwarzenegger and Brown to file answers by 9:00 a.m. this morning (the normal deadline for filing an answer is 20 days after the petition’s filing; here, there wasn’t even 20 hours) and for the petitioner to file a reply by noon. The parties met the deadlines and the court this afternoon denied the petition.
