Well well, look whose views were relied upon in the Prop. 8 case:
Dr. Rekers has a less direct link to another high-profile gay rights case: the federal court challenge to a California law banning same-sex marriage, which was passed in 2008 by a voter initiative.
Dr. Rekers did not testify in that case, but his views, in the form of a declaration filed in a previous case, were cited in the documents prepared for trial by two men initially identified as expert witnesses. (Only one, David Blankenhorn of the Institute for American Values, testified.)
There were two expert witnesses but only Blankenhorn was allowed to testify - and he was utterly destroyed under questioning by David Boies. It was a thing of beauty. The guy embarrassed himself so much. He said Maggie Gallagher is intellectually serious, too.
In fact, I wrote this about him:
The witness is David Blankenhorn, a belligerent witness who won't answer questions and keeps trying to make broad proclamations on the stand. David Boies and the judge both keep trying to teach him how trial witnesses are supposed to conduct themselves, and the judge at one point said that if this were a jury trial, the jury would be instructed to pay attention to the witness' demeanor. This witness is acting crazy so the implication was he seems unreliable.
The testimony was so terrible I'm surprised they don't want it thrown out, but legal experts think maybe all cases where Rekers' views were used should be examined and his evidence should be thrown out:
News coverage has focused largely on his seeming hypocrisy, given that Dr. Rekers, a clinical psychologist and ordained Baptist minister, has written that "leaders of the homosexual revolt" use "manipulative techniques of classic revolutionary strategies" to keep homosexuals from trying to change their orientation.
But legal experts say the scandal may affect more than Dr. Rekers’s reputation. They say it places obligations on those who have relied on Dr. Rekers to inform the court in at least one continuing case to modify or withdraw their arguments.
Please let this happen. Blankenhorn was their only expert witness testimony that seemed reliable - even though it was awful. I hope this is pursued by Boies and Olson.
UPDATE: I emailed this story to a few prominent gay bloggers, as well as David Boies and Ted Olson (through their law firms.) I hope this takes off.