Maryland supreme
court to offer Webcast of same-sex marriage case
arguments

The Maryland supreme court plans to offer live Webcasts of its oral arguments in time to broadcast arguments in a challenge to the state's same-sex marriage ban on December 4, the Baltimore Sun reported Monday.

In January, Judge M. Brooke Murdock ruled in a suit first brought by the ACLU of Maryland two years ago that "Maryland's statutory prohibition against same-sex marriage cannot withstand constitutional challenge." The case was originally slated to be argued in the court of special appeals, but supreme court justices have agreed to expedite the process and hear the case.

"The whole purpose behind what's known as electronic government is for ordinary citizens to get information and see how their government works," said Donald Norris, a public policy professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. "The court of appeals providing greater access to its proceedings is a good thing." (The Advocate)