Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyOctober 6th, 2014
Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, calls today’s Supreme Court action “a vindication of Antonin Scalia,” whose angry dissents in Lawrence v. Texas and Windsor v. US warned that this day would come. And that leaves Mohler feeling a bit down:
As of last week, 19 states and the District of Columbia had legalized same-sex marriage by one means or another. The Court’s decision not to take one of the cases from the lower Federal courts means that every one of them stands. Therefore, not only will same-sex marriage be legal in the states that made a direct appeal, but in every state included within the same U.S. Circuit.
That result is that the decision made clear by the Court will lead, automatically, to the fact that 30 states will have legal same-sex marriage within weeks, if not days. The news from the Court means that the vast majority of Americans will live where same-sex marriage is legal, and three fifths of the states will have legalized same-sex marriage.
But the Court’s decision also sent another even more powerful message. The remaining federal courts were put on notice that same-sex marriage is now the expectation of the Supreme Court and that no appeal on the question is likely to be successful, or even heard. You can expect the lower courts to hear that message loudly and clearly — and fast.
This day in U.S. legal history will be remembered for many years to come as a landmark day toward same-sex marriage. It was the day the nation’s highest court took one of the lowest paths of least resistance. It now seeks to maintain its prestige by avoiding the backlash the Court experienced in the aftermath of Roe v. Wade in 1973. It wants to have its victory without taking further risks to its reputation.
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Jim Hlavac
October 6th, 2014
Why is liberty to pursue happiness as we see fit so awful to these many? Not in 45 years of listening to heterosexuals can I get a clear answer beyond “well, I wouldn’t do that, gross” — well, so be it — but really — if you think this is some shake society to its knees thing then you are positing the idea that gay men are the very lynchpin of society — if we are trashed and agree to trash ourselves too, then society survives — and if a nice word is said, especially by heteros, the whole of civilization will collapse – well, I know we’re just wonderful — but we just can’t be that important.
Poor man, I hope he sleeps well tonight, or his wife will put up with his blubbering.
LJ
October 6th, 2014
So _that_ explains the lamentation I was hearing up here in Indiana, drifting north over the Ohio River…
Ben in oakland
October 6th, 2014
Jim, we are that important. don’t you know we cause hurricanes, civilizations to fall, and hemorrhoids?
LJ
October 6th, 2014
Ben, don’t forget the tornados and terrorist attacks!
John
October 6th, 2014
“Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say ‘REJOICE’!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Rkv-h-uttME
I’m pretty happy!
CPT_Doom
October 6th, 2014
I don’t what is most ironic: that Scalia’s greatest legacy as a Supreme Court Justice will be his bitter anti-gay dissents; that Mohler may well be correct that pending decisions in the 5th and 6th Circuits will be heavily influenced by today’s action; or that Mr Mohler’s own marriage is not considered religiously valid by his Roman Catholic political allies, yet he has no problem trampling on their religious rights and making them recognize it for legal purposes.
Gus
October 7th, 2014
The backlash against Roe is only possible because states regulate medical procedures/clinics/hospitals and the Supremes said the states could regulate abortion trimesters. Don’t see how this translates to marriage equality.
Timothy Kincaid
October 7th, 2014
Cpt Doom,
Perhaps the most delicious irony is that when they quote the Supreme Court on matters of marriage in the future, it will be using the language of his anti-gay rants as the logic for overturning bans. I suspect that in the future, many will mistakenly think Scalia was the voice calling for inclusion.
Paul Douglas
October 7th, 2014
“Reverend” Mohler:
“Mixing politics and religion is like mixing manure and ice cream. It doesn’t do much to the manure but it surely does ruin the ice cream”.
Will Rogers
Regan DuCasse
October 7th, 2014
Roe v Wade persists, not because of it’s timing, but because it’s about the sacrifice of an infant’s life. That will always have intractable concerns for most people.
The issue of marriage equality is more in line with the decision about contraception and the Pill and Loving vs. VA.
And there were several precedents in the lower courts concerning women’s rights within marriage.
Many of these precedents have been cited in the lower courts and also the defenses against contraception and women’s marital autonomy is similar to the defenses against marriage equality.
In other words, the historical and social contexts for gay citizens is now MUCH more clear and the lower courts have provided exceptional references in that regard. They hadn’t been available until about a decade ago and since.
All of the stays, amicus briefs, interventions and other defenses of the marriage bans, became more about the stalling in and of itself, instead of actually intervening on behalf of marriage or society itself from any damaging effects of marriage equality.
This is what gave SCOTUS more fuel to punt (again).
But any of us paying attention to the entire of the legal processes from state to state, see how the lower courts made their cases very difficult for SCOTUS to rule in their favor.
NONE of the defenses of the marriage bans, as I’ve mentioned before, adds up to being legal or Constitutional on any level.
Even NOM and their cohorts using majority rule and the popular vote. There is protection for minorities from tyranny by a majority too.
And the opposition cannot argue that gays are not a minority, or that their treatment in this country up until recently wasn’t tyrannical.
Priya Lynn
October 7th, 2014
“Roe v Wade persists, not because of it’s timing, but because it’s about the sacrifice of an infant’s life. That will always have intractable concerns for most people.”.
Right. Despite anti-gay bigots desperately hoping it will be so, there’s no way a large percentage of Americans are going to get anywhere near as worked up about gays marrying as they are about fetuses being killed.
Timothy Kincaid
October 7th, 2014
I agree.
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