June 26th, 2013
SCOTUS punts, 5 to 4. The proponents did not have standing to appeal. Marriage comes back to California. It’s the “one state” solution.
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Ryan
June 26th, 2013
Really weird line-up, there. Roberts, Scalia, Kagan, Ginsberg and Breyer all sent it back. I wonder what the other four wanted to do, uphold it or not?
Ben In Oakland
June 26th, 2013
Again I am thrilled and disappointed beyond measure. They did what we expected– they punted. But which team did the punting?
Marcus
June 26th, 2013
@Ryan: The dissent doesn’t touch the merits of Prop8. It is limited to the standing issue.
I’m not happy about this decision. It does nothing that would lead to recognizing equal marriage as a right (because it doesn’t touch the issue), but it gives more power to government officials and withholds it from private citizens. I cannot see that as a good thing.
Marcus
June 26th, 2013
@Ben in Oakland: Roberts, Scalia, Ginsburg, Breyer, and Kagan ruled that the petitioners didn’t have standing to appeal, with Roberts writing the opinion. Kennedy, Thomas, Alito, and Sotomayor dissented, with Kennedy writing the dissent.
Remember, neither the majority opinion nor the dissent addressed marriage, equality, scrutiny, or any other merits question. They were strictly limited to standing.
Ben In Oakland
June 26th, 2013
I understand that. And that is why I am disappointed.
But, on the other hand, YAHOOOOOOOOOO!
Marcus
June 26th, 2013
Oops, I see I repeated some of what Ryan said. Sorry, I’m speed-reading today…
Matt
June 26th, 2013
So California now makes 14 states.
Ben In Oakland
June 26th, 2013
We have two decisions supporting, however minimally, the right of gay people to marry. The religious authoritarians have been praying and praying and praying that the Supreme Court would uphold their very limited view of god’s law. they were certain that god would support them in their quest for dominion over the lives of others who don’t share their beliefs.
It didn’t go their way, did it? What are we to conclude? Either 1) God apparently disagrees with them. 2) Prayer has no efficacy. 3) There is no god, or at least, not the kind that concerns itself with religious doctrinarianism, football games, masturbation in the dark, or legal cases.
Of course, these religious authoritarians are all ready to give their indifferent god an out. Man’s sinfulness, free will, god’s wrath one of these days, any time now, blahblahblahblahblah.
How about this, you dominionists out there? Focus on your own family, mind your own business, and maybe start tossing stones to end wars, hunger, and poverty.
ZRAinSWVA
June 26th, 2013
I, too, am thrilled and disappointed beyond measure.
State-by-state will be tedious, and in some states overturning the existing constitutional amendments will take decades, if it could happen at all.
So now the question: since I live in Virginia but married in Vermont, am I married in the eyes of the federal government, or not?
Boy-oh-boy, taxes may be very interesting this coming year.
Timothy Kincaid
June 26th, 2013
ZRA, good question.
My guess is that you will do the opposite of what so many gay spouses in equality state have been doing for years. You will have to prepare federal returns as married, and state returns as total strangers.
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