American Foundation for Equal Rights

WSJ: Lawyer Challenges Witness Opposed to Gay Marriage

A lawyer representing gay couples on Tuesday sought to discredit a witness called by defenders of California’s Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriages.

In federal court here, plaintiffs’ lawyer David Boies challenged the testimony of political expert Kenneth Miller, who said Monday that gays and lesbians in California wield significant political clout because they are well-funded and supported by elected officials, corporations, unions and newspapers.

On the second day of an often-testy cross-examination, Mr. Boies asked about Mr. Miller’s 2009 book, in which he wrote about how ballot initiatives could be used to target minority groups. Under questioning, Mr. Miller, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College, said ballot measures could be used to tap into anti-minority sentiment. Mr. Boies hopes to show that the ban on same-sex marriage was motivated by bias.

Read the rest of Stu Woo’s Wall Street Journal article here.