A confidential source close to San Francisco City Hall leaked that the California Supreme Court was gearing up to issue its opinion on Proposition 8 on Thursday, May 21, but decided to delay after getting a call from Gavin Newsom.
Remember Gavin Newsom? The goofy little tool who singlehandedly blew any chance the homosexuals might have had of getting Prop 8 defeated with his ill-advised "whether you like it or not" speech?
Right. That Gavin Newsom.
The source reported that "Newsom reached out to the Supreme Court and asked them to hold off releasing the decision so it wouldn't coincide with the anniversary of the White Night riots."
It turns out Thursday is the 30th anniversary of the San Francisco riots, which erupted when the Gay Community there learned Dan White had successfully copped a voluntary manslaughter plea in the Harvey Milk/George Moscone murder trial. If you don't know who Harvey Milk was, rent the movie.
The ensuing riots in San Francisco on May 21, 1979 caused massive damage from which the Bay Area has only lately begun to recover. Examples of the destruction abound. Here are two taken at random: a claim submitted to the city for fifteen dollars to repair a crack in a Chinatown bistro window caused by flying debris from a rioter's exploding piñata; an estimate of $300,000 to paint over the slogans scrawled on the sides of buildings on Castro Street (happily, the UN, having been deliberately misinformed that the grafitti was a free-form, stream-of-consciousness expression of solidarity with an obscure Cuban dictator, declared it a World Heritage Artifact, after which the city certified it as a tourist attraction).
Par for the course, Newsom's office shot off a press release denying he approached the justices.
Nevertheless, it's very possible the leak story is accurate. First of all, Newsom has access; his father is a retired state appellate court judge. Secondly, the smart money has the Court upholding Prop 8; releasing the opinion on the anniversary of the White Night Rights Riot (say that three times fast) would be a bit of a double whammy, n'est pas?
May 23rd update: the rumor is accurate. The Justices agreed to delay the issuance of the opinion until Tuesday, May 26.
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