Federal Prop 8 Trial Starts

The trial to bring in to question California's Proposition 8 which prohibited gay marriage in 2008 began today in San Francisco.

If you live in the right city, you can watch the trial via live feed. Here is the notice on the American Foundation for Equal Rights webpage:

Watch Prop. 8 Trial Live
JANUARY 9, 2010
A live video and audio feed from the upcoming Proposition 8 trial in San Francisco will be available for public viewing in federal courthouses elsewhere in California, and in Oregon, Washington and New York, it was announced today. Video and audio of the trial, which is scheduled to begin Monday, January 11, 2010, at 8:30 a.m. (PDT), will be distributed via electronically secure means to the federal courthouses listed below.

View the list of cities at AFER.

The trial was scheduled to be made available live on YouTube, but that plan was changed.

Reporting from Washington - The U.S. Supreme Court, acting on an appeal from conservative defenders of California's ban on same-sex marriage, overruled a federal judge in San Francisco today and blocked video coverage of the trial on YouTube.

In a brief order, the justices said they were halting the move by U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker "permitting real-time streaming" of the trial, "except as it permits streaming to other rooms within the confines of the courthouse in which the trial is to be held."

Read the full article at the L.A. Times.

Watch Rachel Maddow's interview of Plaintiffs' attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies:


Read Laura Flanders review at The Nation: Willing to Reconsider.

Lots of Tweets about the trial. Look here.

Will continue updating . . .