LGBT LECTURE SERIES: Marriage Equality Talk Scheduled at UCR Palm Desert

Stanford political science professor Gary Segura will speak in Palm Desert about prospects for marriage equality as arguments approach in marriage-related cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, it was announced Thursday.

Segura will speak at 6 p.m. March 1 at UCR Palm Desert. He will address the political and legal processes relating to two cases -- U.S. v. Windsor and Hollingsworth v. Perry -- and how the politics of the Supreme Court and the outside world might interact to shape outcomes.

The Supreme Court is slated to hear arguments next month on Windsor and Perry. The Windsor case deals with the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, signed into law in 1996 by President Bill Clinton. The law says that marriage in federal law or regulation means a union of a man and a woman.

The Perry case deals with California's Proposition 8, a ballot measure passed by voters in 2008 that says only marriage between a man and a woman is recognized in the state.

Segura served as an expert witness in both the Perry and Windsor case.

The free lecture is sponsored by UCR's Center for Ideas and Society.

Reservations are requested. Contact the campus at (760) 834-0800 or palmdesert@ucr.edu.

—City News Service.