Some potentially good news for Ted Olson, David Boies and everyone opposed to Proposition 8: The three-judge judicial panel for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' hearing on Monday has been announced.
"Judge Stephen Reinhardt, the leader of the 9th Circuit's liberal bloc and often at the center of some of the court's most controversial decisions, will hear the case, along with Michael Daly Hawkins, an Arizona-based judge and Clinton appointee generally considered a moderate but is often more liberal on social questions. The panel, which was randomly assigned and revealed Monday, is rounded out by one clear conservative, Idaho-based Judge N. Randy Smith, one of the court's newest members and a Republican appointee of former President George W. Bush."
Predictably, the right-wing is seething. Ed Whelan at the National Review:
"Reinhardt may well be the most aggressive liberal judicial activist in the nation—and the most reversed judge in history. Hawkins, is also regularly on the Left ... With two hard-core liberals, the panel is a fairly typical Ninth Circuit draw—which is to say, a bad one for supporters of Prop 8."
On December, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' is scheduled to hear oral arguments on Chief U.S. Judge Vaughn Walker's landmark ruling. The hearing will be broadcast on C-SPAN.
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