California overturns ban on same-sex marriage

[Sean]

Originally Posted by cacophony

ugh, just look at the bottom 10 states on the Y axis.

if you divided up georgia and polled atlanta vs the rest of this godforsaken state you'd see a very divided picture. rednecks are ruining it for everyone.

Rednecks and Mormons. Utah's vying for the bottom spot with Mississippi and Alabama, and of course Mormons were largely behind the push on the prop 8 out here in California.

[Deckard]

It certainly looks bad for old Alabama and Mississippi, but it could be worse.

A judge in Malawi has imposed a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison with hard labour on a gay couple convicted of gross indecency and unnatural acts. Handing down sentence in the commercial capital, Blantyre, Judge Nyakwawa Usiwa-Usiwa told the pair:

"I will give you a scaring sentence so that the public be protected from people like you, so that we are not tempted to emulate this horrendous example."

Huh? Another anti-gay conservative accidentally letting slip that he's running away from temptation?

Well whoodathunkit...

[Sean]

The "Defense of Marriage Act" has been ruled to be unconstitutional by U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro in Boston.

BOSTON — A U.S. judge in Boston has ruled that a federal gay marriage ban is unconstitutional because it interferes with the right of a state to define marriage.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro on Thursday ruled in favor of gay couples' rights in two separate challenges to the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, known as DOMA.

The state had argued the law denied benefits such as Medicaid to gay married couples in Massachusetts, where same-sex unions have been legal since 2004.

Tauro agreed, and said the act forces Massachusetts to discriminate against its own citizens.

"The federal government, by enacting and enforcing DOMA, plainly encroaches upon the firmly entrenched province of the state, and in doing so, offends the Tenth Amendment. For that reason, the statute is invalid," Tauro wrote in a ruling in a lawsuit filed by Attorney General Martha Coakley.

Ruling in a separate case filed by Gays & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, Tauro found that DOMA violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.

"We've maintained from the very beginning that there was absolutely no basis for this law treating one class of married Massachusetts couples different from everybody else and the court has recognized that," said Gary Buseck, GLAD's legal director.

The Justice Department argued the federal government has the right to set eligibility requirements for federal benefits — including requiring that those benefits only go to couples in marriages between a man and a woman.
The law was enacted by Congress in 1996 when it appeared Hawaii would soon legalize same-sex marriage and opponents worried that other states would be forced to recognize such marriages. The lawsuit challenges only the portion of the law that prevents the federal government from affording pension and other benefits to same-sex couples.

Since then, five states and the District of Columbia have legalized gay marriage.

One step at a time....

[cacophony]

last night's futurama episode was a tribute to prop 8.

[jOHN rODRIGUEZ]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38560562/ns/us_news-life/

Judge overturns Calif. gay marriage ban
Verdict comes in response to lawsuit challenging Proposition 8Advertisement | ad info
.NBC, msnbc.com and news services
updated 24 minutes ago
Share Print Font: +-breaking news
SAN FRANCISCO — In a major victory for gay rights advocates, a federal judge on Wednesday struck down a California ban on same-sex marriage.

Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker's decision to overturn the voter-approved ban, known as Proposition 8, came in response to a lawsuit brought by two same-sex couples and the city of San Francisco seeking to invalidate the law as an unlawful infringement on the civil rights of gay men and lesbians.

Proposition 8, which outlawed gay marriages in California five months after the state Supreme Court legalized them, passed with 52 percent of the vote in November 2008 following the most expensive campaign on a social issue in U.S. history.

Attorneys on both sides have said an appeal was certain if Walker did not rule in their favor. The case would go first to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, then the Supreme Court if the high court justices agree to review it.

Anticipating such a scenario, lawyers for the coalition of religious and conservative groups that sponsored Proposition 8 in 2008 filed a legal brief Tuesday asking Walker to stay his decision if he overturns the ban so same-sex couples could not marry while an appeal was pending.

"Same-sex marriages would be licensed under a cloud of uncertainty, and should proponents succeed on appeal, any such marriages would be invalid," they wrote.

Walker presided over a 13-day trial earlier this year that was the first in federal court to examine if states can prohibit gays from getting married without violating the constitutional guarantee of equality.

Supporters argued the ban was necessary to safeguard the traditional understanding of marriage and to encourage responsible childbearing.

Opponents said that tradition or fears of harm to heterosexual unions were legally insufficient grounds to discriminate against gay couples.


********************

God f-ing save me, I can hear the pressure to wear a damn ring already. . .

[Strangelet]

Judge Walker, American Hero in the silly season of swamp gas extremism: "That the majority of California voters supported Proposition 8 is
irrelevant, as “fundamental rights may not be submitted to [a] vote;
they depend on the outcome of no elections.” West Virginia State Board
of Education v Barnette, 319 US 624, 638 (1943)"

[jOHN rODRIGUEZ]

(raising open shaking hands in the air like the holey rollers I've seen on the television) "Laaawd, Laaawd Jesus Christ SAVE me. I want to follow in your footsteps and be a bachelor FOREVAAAA!"

[dubman]

yo john rodriguez you ever look back in your posts and realize that what you said three months ago as a private joke is not actually funny or worthwhile at all

everyone here is three months ahead of you on that.

anyway, update: judge lifted the stay on marriages altogether while the appeals process gnashes and writhes about.

[jOHN rODRIGUEZ]

PM'd to spare everyone the bitchy catfight.

[dubman]

now spare everyone the posts you make