Opinion ID: 3065716
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The County of Imperial and the Board of

Text: Supervisors [5] The Board of Supervisors of Imperial County and the County itself also claim significant protectable interests warranting intervention. Neither claim is sustainable. First, the Board alleges that it “has ultimate responsibility to ensure that county clerks and their deputies faithfully perform their legal duties, including those relating to marriage.” Under California law, however, the Board plays no role with regard to marriage, which is “a matter of ‘statewide concern’ rather than a ‘municipal affair.’ ” Lockyer, 95 P.3d at 471. Local elected leaders “may have authority under a local charter to supervise and control the actions of a county clerk or county recorder with regard to other subjects,” but they have “no authority to expand or vary the authority of a county clerk or county recorder to grant marriage licenses or register marriage certificates under the governing state statutes . . . .” Id. Moreover, the duties of the Supervisors themselves are not directly affected by this litigation, so they lack a significant protectable interest. [6] Second, the County itself has failed to demonstrate any interest of its own, apart from those claimed by Vargas or the Board of Supervisors. The County alleges “a direct financial interest in assuring that the vote of its residents is defended 4 In any event, it is an open question of California law whether Article III, section 3.5, addressed to state “administrative agenc[ies],” applies to individual Executive officers. See Lockyer, 95 P.3d at 473-475. Because, given the Supremacy Clause, Vargas would face no “confusion” even if she were covered by that provision, we need not request that the Supreme Court of California clarify the provision’s reach. PERRY v. SCHWARZENEGGER 611 and ultimately upheld” given its “responsibility to provide social welfare programs for the County’s residents” and its “understanding that promoting opposite-sex marriage will benefit the public welfare, and reduce a wide variety of problems including, but not limited to, teenage pregnancy, depression in young adults, incarceration rates, and the inability of parents to be the sole financial providers for their children.” We deem this argument waived, because in the district court, the County made no mention of any such interest in the case, and certainly of no financial interest. To the contrary it acknowledged that it “ha[d] no known information relevant to this case” and “d[id] not intend to offer evidence at trial.” In any event, the County fails to substantiate its “direct financial interest” with any evidence, such as affidavits of financial officers or county records, and instead asserts that “[t]he precise extent of the county’s financial interest is ultimately unknowable and irrelevant.” Seeing as the burden is on the movant to demonstrate its interest, and it has made no attempt to do so, we conclude that its newly claimed interest is without merit.