Same-Sex Marriage Update

[MsTinkerbelly]

The ban on same-sx marriage was struck down in Nebraska today, but will not take effect for another week. Meanwhile, the asshat brigade will appeal the decision to the 8th District Court of Appeals.

Yay Nebraska!

Prop 8

The California Supreme Court upheld a lower courts ruling that the supporters of Prop h8 must reveal their identities.

This issue will probably be further appealed, as none of the haters wish to be known as haters.

[MsTinkerbelly]

Originally Posted by MsTinkerbelly

The ban on same-sx marriage was struck down in Nebraska today, but will not take effect for another week. Meanwhile, the asshat brigade will appeal the decision to the 8th District Court of Appeals.

.

The 8th District Court of Appeals put a stay on the lower courts decision, and marriage in Nebraska will be on hold until the decision by SCOTUS.

[MsTinkerbelly]

Yesterday, Chile passed a Civil marriage bill giving the rights of married couples to same-sex and domestic partner unions.

The unions can begin in 6 months when the waiting period is over; Chile keeps civil marriages and weddings separate, as do many foreign countries.

Way to go Chile!

[MsTinkerbelly]

Just a reminder that the SCOTUS will hear the marriage equality cases on April 28th!

So exciting!

[Allison W]

Foolish question: do we have a breakdown of how the SCOTUS is likely to vote on marriage equality? I know four of the justices (Scalia, Thomas, Alito, and Roberts) are considered conservative, and I'm pretty damn sure that at the bare minimum Scalia and Thomas will be very against it; and that four of the justices (Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan) are considered liberal and that all four of them are likely to support marriage equality; and that Kennedy is generally regarded as the swing vote on issues frequently divided along conservative/liberal lines. Am I correct to assume that we presumably have five votes between the liberal wing and Kennedy?

[MsTinkerbelly]

Originally Posted by Allison W

Foolish question: do we have a breakdown of how the SCOTUS is likely to vote on marriage equality? I know four of the justices (Scalia, Thomas, Alito, and Roberts) are considered conservative, and I'm pretty damn sure that at the bare minimum Scalia and Thomas will be very against it; and that four of the justices (Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan) are considered liberal and that all four of them are likely to support marriage equality; and that Kennedy is generally regarded as the swing vote on issues frequently divided along conservative/liberal lines. Am I correct to assume that we presumably have five votes between the liberal wing and Kennedy?

My FEELING is that they will continue along the same lines with this decision, as with their other recent decisions allowing equality to move forward.

BUT...Despite all of the recent positive rulings from the SCOTUS, we have to remember that they will be deciding this question for the ENTIRE country, and they ruled against us not that many years ago.


Sorry, that and $1.50 will get you a cup of coffee, but not much else.

[Allison W]

Was the composition of the court different when they ruled against us? Because I know Sotomayor and Kagan were added only within the past few years.

I suppose what's really important is how Kennedy swings on gay rights issues, because that swing vote plus the liberal bloc would get the majority.

...Yep, after poking around on Google, looks like Kennedy will give us the 5-4 majority. Apparently his mentor was gay and he's actually taken it upon himself to write majority opinions supporting pro-gay rulings.

So barring some completely unforeseen upset like a member of the liberal bloc being secretly replaced with a goateed evil twin, marriage equality should be the law of the land once the Supreme Court hears the case.