The court of appeals reversed a district court order and remanded the action with instructions. The court held that a district court abused its discretion by ordering the unsealing of a video recording of a trial where the recording was prepared solely for an earlier trial judge’s personal use in chambers and was placed under seal in keeping with that trial judge’s unequivocal assurance to the parties that the recording would not be publicly broadcast.
California’s adoption of an initiative constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage (Prop 8) spawned a variety of cases challenging the amendment’s validity. One of the cases, brought by Kristin Perry, the City and County of San Francisco, and others, was scheduled for trial in January 2010 before former Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
