The last “witness” for the plaintiffs in the Prop 8 trial was a video of a simulcast done at Pastor Jim Garlow’s Skyline Church. As you read this AP story, you will see that the point of showing the tape was to try to discredit Pastor Garlow. What the story doesn’t tell you is that the plaintiffs’ attorneys had hoped to get Pastor Garlow himself on the stand. They subpoenaed (sp?) him. He told me this, when I saw him at the Ecumenical Prayer Service for Life on Friday evening in Oakland, on the eve of the big Walk for Life in SF. Pastor Garlow told me that he wanted to testify: he has nothing to hide. But his attorneys told him, absolutely not. They did the research and verified this point: never in the history of the United States has a pastor been put on the witness stand and questioned about the content of his preaching. The attorneys were adamant: don’t agree to go on the stand. They thought it would be a terrible precedent. Something about the First Amendment. Free Exercise of Religion, Freedom of speech and all that.
So the plaintiffs’ attorneys entered a video of Garlow’s church into evidence instead.