Gay Marriage Now Legal In 5 More States

[stromboli]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/07/us/denying-review-justices-clear-way-for-gay-marriage-in-5-states.html?module=Notification&version=BreakingNews&region=FixedTop&action=Click&contentCollection=BreakingNews&contentID=21187989&pgtype=Homepage&_r=0

WASHINGTON â€" The Supreme Court on Monday denied review in all five pending same-sex marriage cases, clearing the way for such marriages to proceed in Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin.

The move was a major surprise and suggests that the justices are not going to intercede in the wave of decisions in favor of same-sex marriage at least until a federal appeals court upholds a state ban.

The move will almost immediately increase the number of states allowing same-sex marriage from 19 to 24, along with the District of Columbia.

The justices had earlier acted to stop same-sex marriages in Utah and Virginia, issuing stays to block appeals court rulings allowing them. Other appeals court decisions had been stayed by the appeals courts themselves.

The all but universal consensus from observers of the Supreme Court had been that the stays issued by the justices indicated that the justices wanted the last word before federal courts transformed the landscape for same-sex marriage. But in recent remarks, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said there was no urgency for the court to act until a split emerged in the federal appeals courts, all of whose recent decisions have been in favor of same-sex marriage.

The justices last agreed to hear a constitutional challenge to a same-sex marriage ban, California’s Proposition 8, in December 2012. But a majority of the justices said it was not properly before the court. That move indicated that the Supreme Court may have wanted to stay out of the fray until the number of states allowing same-sex marriage was much higher.

There is precedent for such an approach. The court waited until 1967, for instance, to strike down bans on interracial marriage, when the number of states allowing such unions had grown to 34, though it was still opposed by a significant majority of Americans.

Popular opinion has moved much faster than the courts on same-sex marriage, however, with many Americans and large majorities of young people supporting it.

If the court took pains to avoid a resolution of whether there was a constitutional right to same-sex marriage in the California case, Hollingsworth v. Perry, it set the groundwork for a definitive answer in a second decision issued the same day. That ruling, United States v. Windsor, struck down the part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act that barred federal benefits for same-sex couples married in states that allowed such unions.

The decision was based on a muddle of rationales. In dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia challenged readers of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s majority opinion to follow its “disappearing trail” of “legalistic argle-bargle.”

But lower courts seemed to have no trouble understanding what the Windsor decision had to say about a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. In a remarkable and essentially unbroken line of about 40 decisions, state and federal courts have relied on Windsor to rule in favor of same-sex marriage.

In his own dissent in the Windsor case, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. cautioned that the decision was a limited one, buttressing his assertion with a quotation from the majority opinion.

“The court does not have before it, and the logic of its opinion does not decide the distinct question whether the states, in the exercise of their ‘historic and essential authority to define the marital relation,’ may continue to utilize the traditional definition of marriage,” he wrote.

“We may in the future have to resolve challenges to state marriage definitions affecting same-sex couples,” he added. “That issue, however, is not before us in this case.”

But lower-court judges seemed inclined to agree with Justice Scalia’s assessment of where things were heading.

“By formally declaring anyone opposed to same-sex marriage an enemy of human decency,” Justice Scalia wrote, “the majority arms well every challenger to a state law restricting marriage to its traditional definition.”

Gay marriage is now legal in Utah. 

[Atheon]

Fantastic!!!!

Almost 50% of the states, and certainly more than 50% of the population!!!!!!

Yay yay yay!!!!!

But I thought there were more than just these five states that had a stay preventing gay marriage.

[Poison Tree]

Colorado (more accurately, one clerk in Boulder) had been using the Utah ruling as grounds to issue licenses before being halted by the stays. Now that they stays have been lifted the issuing of licenses should resume here.

If Ohio's lower court rules against gay marriage then the Supreme Court will need to resolve the conflict but, as they said on NPR this morning, can we really expect the court to allow potentially millions of gay marriage now and next session say "just kidding"?

[Solitary]

It's about time! "First, kill all the lawyers." Shakespeare

[stromboli]

Fantastic!!!!

Almost 50% of the states, and certainly more than 50% of the population!!!!!!

Yay yay yay!!!!!

But I thought there were more than just these five states that had a stay preventing gay marriage.

The decision is based on Appellate court decisions of the 5 states that ruled in favor of gay marriage. Simply by refusing to see the cases, SCOTUS effectively rubber stamps their decisions. Any state where the decision has been against gay marriage will now have to reconsider their decision, knowing that SCOTUS has refused seeing the 5 states' cases. This gives major ammunition to pro-gay marriage groups, but it is not the last hurrah for anti-gay legislators. I would daresay that the handwriting is on the wall, however. It is a big victory. 

Any decision made in a lower court ruling is not affected because the process of appeal still applies.

[stromboli]

Utah response to the decision:
http://www.kutv.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/Salt-Lake-County-District-Attorney-Gill-issues-SSM-statement-on-Supreme-Court-Order-45612.shtml#.VDLlGvn1lhg

Second statement:
"Moments ago, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, following on the U.S. Supreme Court’s order earlier today declining to hear the State’s appeal in Kitchen v. Herbert, lifted the Tenth Circuit’s order staying that decision.  The Tenth Circuit Clerk issued notice of the appellate court’s mandate immediately following entry of the Tenth’s Circuit’s order.

Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill promptly conferred with Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen, advising her she may immediately begin issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples.

'We are excited and pleased that we now have clarity from the courts and the fundamental rights of all Utahns are honored and protected,” Gill said.  “The legal analysis of Judge Shelby has been affirmed to the benefit of all.'”
Original statement:

"We were pleased with the U.S. Supreme Court’s order this morning taking decisive action on the important issues of same sex marriage and the related fundamental constitutional rights of all Utahns. 

Although the Supreme Court’s decision to deny certiorari in all pending cases does not conclusively resolve the issue nationwide, it does provide clarity in Utah and other states where marriage bans were struck down as unconstitutional.  In all those states, the intermediate appellate courts had stayed their decisions, i.e., put them on hold, pending action by the Supreme Court.

Here in the Tenth Circuit, the appellate court’s stay remains in place pending that court’s issuance of what is called a “mandate” from the Tenth Circuit’s Clerk’s Office.  Specifically, the Tenth Circuit stated, “f a petition for certiorari is filed and denied, we would lift the stay and issue the mandate.” 

Given the fundamental constitutional rights at stake, we have every confidence the Tenth Circuitâ€"in light of today’s Supreme Court order declining to hear the Utah case (or any other)â€"will act swiftly to enter its mandate and lift the stay order. 

The Salt Lake County Clerk will begin issuing licenses to same sex couples as soon as the stay is lifted and she is legally authorized to do so."

Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker:

"Today is a historic day for equal rights in Utah.  I wish to congratulate all of the married couples in Salt Lake City who will now have their relationships legally recognized.  This is a momentous occasion for civil rights in our state and nation."
Bill Duncan, Sutherland Institute’s Director of the Center for Family and Society:

"Children are entitled to be raised by a married mother and father. Sutherland Institute is deeply disappointed that the Supreme Court has failed to correct the lawlessness of lower courts that have deprived the people of Utah and other states of their ability to protect that entitlement. While it appears that Utah is being forced by the federal courts to recognize same-sex marriages, there are still other states whose laws the courts have not yet disrupted. We will provide whatever support we can to those states and hope the Supreme Court will reconsider this unwise action in a future case.”
Utah attorney general Democratic candidate Charles A. Stormont:

"Only four Justices' must vote to allow an appeal to proceed to the Supreme Court. The fact that not even four Justices were willing to hear Utah’s case, or any of the other six cases addressing the same issue, demonstrates the weakness of the state's case."
"After ten months since the appeals began, now is the time for Sean Reyes to tell the people how much money he has wasted on these fruitless appeals."

Celebration of Marriage:

"The credibility of the judicial system is permanently damaged when it concludes that adult relationships are so important that children must give up their relationships with their own mother or father when it comes into conflict with gay marriage.

In denying to hear Utah’s case, the Supreme Court has turned a blind eye to a child’s need for both a father and mother. This causes irreparable rifts in every aspect of family law, from custody battles in divorce courts, to adoptions that idealize motherless and fatherless family structures. The resulting fracture of family law will weaken Americans’ natural respect for the Court and turn the question of children’s legal relationships into an unresolvable and painful chaos.

Although the lower courts have been allowed to redefine marriage in Utah, Utahns who stand with children will continue to vigorously support policy that prioritizes children’s most important relationships above other considerations."
Utah Senator Jim Dabakis:

"The Supreme Court decision today allows Utah LGBT families to no longer be second-class families. This is good for them and for Utah. Equality and fairness have always been Utah values."

"The LGBT community was heartened by Saturday's Conference words of Elder Dallin Oaks when speaking of possible Court decisions involving marriage, Oaks said, "We should be persons of goodwill toward all," Dallin H. Oaks said, "rejecting persecution of any kind, including persecution based on race, ethnicity, religious belief or nonbelief, and differences in sexual orientation.

"It is in that spirit of civility, cooperation and respect for diversity that we as Utahns should seek to move forward together and build an even greater state!"

Utah Senator Mike Lee:

“The Supreme Court’s decision to not review the Tenth Circuit’s ruling in Kitchen v. Herbert is disappointing.  Nothing in the Constitution forbids a state from retaining the traditional definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman.  Whether to change that definition is a decision best left to the people of each state â€" not to unelected, politically unaccountable judges. The Supreme Court owes it to the people of those states, whose democratic choices are being invalidated, to review the question soon and reaffirm that states do have that right.”

OK, this statement:
"The LGBT community was heartened by Saturday's Conference words of Elder Dallin Oaks when speaking of possible Court decisions involving marriage, Oaks said, "We should be persons of goodwill toward all," Dallin H. Oaks said, "rejecting persecution of any kind, including persecution based on race, ethnicity, religious belief or nonbelief, and differences in sexual orientation.

"It is in that spirit of civility, cooperation and respect for diversity that we as Utahns should seek to move forward together and build an even greater state!"

Dallin Oaks is a retired lawyer and member of the Quorum of 12 Apostles. Interesting that on Sunday, the day before the announcement, he made that statement at the semiannual General Conference. It tells me he had heads up beforehand, meaning the decision was made and given to him by the law clerks or lawyers involved.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is an example of Mormon switching horses in midstream.

Mike Lee is a Tea Party Republican. Orrin Hatch is probably smart enough to keep his mouth shut.

[Hydra009]

The map is looking bluer all the time.

[stromboli]

Lol. Love me some navy blue.   

[Mermaid]

Unsurprisingly, Ted Cruz calls it "tragic and indefensible".
http://www.salon.com/2014/10/06/%E2%80%9Ctragic_and_indefensible%E2%80%9D_ted_cruz_loses_it_over_supreme_court_and_marriage_equality/

Does he have worms eating his brain or something?

[Hydra009]

Unsurprisingly, Ted Cruz calls it "tragic and indefensible".
http://www.salon.com/2014/10/06/%E2%80%9Ctragic_and_indefensible%E2%80%9D_ted_cruz_loses_it_over_supreme_court_and_marriage_equality/

Does he have worms eating his brain or something?

> implying existence of a brain

[stromboli]

My response: "God is in control!"

[Atheon]

Unsurprisingly, Ted Cruz calls it "tragic and indefensible".

How sweet are the tears of bigots!

[PickelledEggs]

How sweet are the tears of bigots!

Tastes like a semi-sweet chocolate fudge pastry washed down with a white Russian.

Sent from your mom

[AllPurposeAtheist]

 Well it's sad because now my grandparents are all going to have to post mortem get divorced and become gay..  If you ever saw pictures of my grandfathers you would know just how scary that proposition is. 

[The Skeletal Atheist]

This is great! I'm still waiting for more news of the Georgia case, but right now it's just going through typical bureaucratic bullshit. Should be hearing something by the end of the year though.