Date: Thu, 11 Jul 96 12:17:15 HST
From: ramsey@math.hawaii.edu (Tom Ramsey)
Subject: HAWAII JULY 11

			DEPOSITIONS NEARLY FINISHED
			  FOR CIRCUIT COURT TRIAL

	Today, HERMP's lawyer Dan Foley and the state's attorney will 
put their expert witness lists on record:  4 each.  For each side, 3
witnesses from the mainland and one from Hawaii.  The focus of the testimony
is on the raising of children.

        All but one of the 8 witnesses has been deposed.  Evan Wolfson,
staff attorney for Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, deposed the
six mainland experts.  Dan Foley handles the two local experts.  This
division of labor was part of a long-standing agreement between Foley
and LLDEF (going back several years)---LLDEF has not paid any of Foley's
legal fees (HERMP has been the only organization to do that) BUT LLDEF
agreed to pay such court costs as occur with expert witnesses.  Thank
you LLDEF!!!!!  Expert testimony is not cheap.

	On August 1, the judge will consult with Foley and the state's
attorney on how to handle the media for the Sept. 10 trial.  The media
interest has been intense.

	15 national, anti-gay organizations are collaborating on a 
Friend of the Court brief.  The judge has agreed to accept the brief, but
after the trial.  Such briefs will be due 30 days after the end of the
trial, to give the briefers time to digest the trial proceedings.
After the Friend of the Court briefs are filed, Foley and the state's
attorney will have time to respond to the outside briefs.  Conservatively,
if the trial lasts two weeks, there is no way the judge can rule before
mid-November and probably later.

	If the Circuit Court judge rules in HERMP's favor, say in December,
the state will have 30 days to appeal the ruling to Hawaii's Supreme Court
(for a final legal disposition of the Hawaii case).  Also, the state will
ask for a stay of the judge's decision pending the appeal.  HERMP fully
expects the stay to be granted.  Which means that we wait through 1997
for the Supreme Court to act!


					Best Regards,
					Tom Ramsey

Web sites for HERMP information:
http://www.xq.com/hermp/
http://www.qrd.org/qrd/orgs/hermp/
http://www.tnight.com/hermp/
http://www.qrd.org/qrd/usa/hawaii/marriage.update/
The latter is provided by a BBS, which also provides BBS access
to HERMP messages: Tropical Night BBS (808) 235-5558
telnet:bbs.tnight.com

For the official report of the Commission on Sexual Orientation and
the Law:
http://www.hawaii.gov/lrb/solcvr.html

For legal documents related to Baehr v. Lewin (now Baehr v. Miike):
http://www.qrd.org/qrd/www/legal/
which has a link to marriage and Baehr v. Lewin
 
For national as well as Hawaii information:
http://nether.net/~rod/html/sub/marriage.html
http://www.well.com/user/davadam/hermp.html
http://www.eskimo.com/~demian/partners.html