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IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - x DENNIS HOLLINGSWORTH, ET AL., Petitioners v. KRISTIN M. PERRY, ET AL. : : : : No. 12-144

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - x Washington, D.C. Tuesday, March 26, 2013

The above-entitled matter came on for oral argument before the Supreme Court of the United States at 10:07 a.m. APPEARANCES: CHARLES J. COOPER, ESQ., Washington, D.C.; on behalf of Petitioners. THEODORE B. OLSON, ESQ., Washington, D.C.; on behalf of Respondents. DONALD B. VERRILLI, JR., ESQ., Solicitor General, Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.; for United States, as amicus curiae, supporting Respondents.

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 ORAL ARGUMENT OF

C O N T E N T S PAGE

CHARLES J. COOPER, ESQ. On behalf of the Petitioners 3

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P R O C E E D I N G S (10:07 a.m.) CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: We'll hear argument

this morning in Case 12-144, Hollingsworth v. Perry. Mr. Cooper? ORAL ARGUMENT OF CHARLES J. COOPER ON BEHALF OF THE PETITIONERS MR. COOPER: Thank you, Mr. Chief Justice,

and may it please the Court: New York's highest court, in a case similar to this one, remarked that until quite recently, it was an accepted truth for almost everyone who ever lived in any society in which marriage existed -CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: you wasting our time with this? Mr. Cooper, why are

I read your brief, and

it offended me as a lawyer and a member of the human race. MR. COOPER: Your honor, with respect, my I did the best I could.

client's position is terrible.

You and I both know there's no reason to deny equal protection to same-sex couples. embarrassed to even be arguing this case. I'm Every morning

I wake up, stare at myself in the mirror for two hours and wonder how it came to this. JUSTICE GINSBURG: Great. I think we can

dispense with the rest of this farce then. 3

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CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS:

Agreed.

We hold

that the Equal Protection clause requires strict scrutiny of all sexual-orientation-based actions. Proposition 8 completely fails to even articulate a governmental interest, much less a compelling one. The

judgment of the Court of the Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is therefore affirmed. going down tomorrow. (Whereupon, at 10:08 a.m., the case in the above-entitled matter was decided.) By the way, DOMA is totally

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