The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday temporarily blocked a federal judge’s plan to broadcast the trial over California’s ban on gay marriage by posting video on YouTube.
Just an hour before the trial got under way Monday, the high court Court halted for at least two days Judge Vaughn R. Walker’s plans to allow video of the proceedings to be uploaded on a delayed basis on the video sharing website, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.
The 8-1 decision also prevented live simulcasts from being broadcast at the federal appeals court building in San Francisco, and at courthouses in Seattle, Pasadena, Portland, Ore., and Brooklyn, N.Y.
The court said it wanted until at least Wednesday to consider arguments by backers of Proposition 8, the November 2008 ballot measure outlawing same-sex marriage, that camera coverage could result in threats or even violence against witnesses favoring the measure.
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The judge had approved the coverage under a pilot program announced by the Ninth Circuit Judicial Council. Walker said the District Court in San Francisco had solicited public comments on the idea and had received more than 138,000 comments as of Friday, of which only 32 were opposed.
