SHERMAN OAKS, Calif. — This morning's Hollingsworth vs. Perry decision at the U.S. Supreme Court deprives the AIDS Healthcare Foundation standing to defend Measure B in federal court.
In April, U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson ruled that the AHF could intervene in Vivid Entertainment's suit seeking injunctive relief over enforcement of Los Angeles County's Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act, which was approved by voters in November.
The AHF, in its arguments for intervenor status, contended that counsel for Los Angeles County won't make any arguments made by the proposed intervenors because it won't defend the constitutionality of Measure B.
But today's U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Hollingsworth vs. Perry, which dismisses a case relative to California's Proposition 8 gay marriage ban, could be key in the possibility of tossing the AHF from the Measure B case.
The U.S. Supreme Court today held in Hollingsworth vs. Perry, 5-4, that opponents of gay marriage behind California's 2008 Proposition 8 effort did not have the constitutional authority, or standing, to defend the law in federal courts after the state refused to appeal its loss at trial years earlier.
"The court [in the Measure B case] granted AHF's intervention motion based on the Hollingsworth vs. Perry (Proposition 8) 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that as a proponent of an initiative, they had standing," industry attorney Allan Gelbard told XBIZ.
"The Supreme Court ruled this morning that was incorrect when it held that the proponents of Proposition 8 lacked Article III standing in federal court and vacated the 9th Circuit opinion," Gelbard said.
Pregerson wrote in the April ruling that the AHF had significant protectable interest in the subject matter of the litigation that was sufficient to support intervention.
The AHF, in its arguments for intervenor status, maintained that the county concedes that the group was a necessary party to litigate the constitutionality of Measure B because "no other party to the case will."
Among its affirmative defenses, the AHF said that it had reserved "the right to have proponents of Measure B intervene and defend the constitutionality of Measure B in light of the Proposition 8 gay marriage ban decision."
The AHF did not immediately return calls to XBIZ for comment on today's ruling and possible effects on its intervenor status in the Measure B suit.
Vivid, led by a trio of famed adult entertainment industry attorneys — Robert Corn-Revere, Paul Cambria and H. Louis Sirkin — are seeking injunctive relief over enforcement of Los Angeles County's Measure B
Vivid and two adult performers, Kayden Kross and Logan Pierce, filed their suit in January at U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
Judge Pregerson's April ruling granting AHF intervenor status