The federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California has overturned a ruling that would have forced the backers of Proposition 8 in California to turn over strategy and other documents to groups hoping to reverse the gay marriage ban.

The court ruled that forcing the backers of the voter-approved gay marriage ban to reveal their strategies and conversations that they thought were private would be a violation of their first amendment rights.

The people suing for the documents claim that Prop 8 backers had a bias against gays and lesbians and that alone drove them to get the gay marriage ban on the ballot.  Their goal is to get Prop 8 overturned as a violation of civil rights and with this new ruling they will not have insider information to assist in their suit.

A footnote in the opinion that was handed down by the court did leave an opportunity for the gay rights groups to compel the Prop 8 group Protect Marriage to produce some documents so long as lawyers on the other side request them based on a narrowly targeted request for evidence.

Read the courts opinion:

Tags: California, Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, Lawsuits, LGBT, National Organization for Marriage, Prop 8