Archive | Gay Marriage

The Ninth Circuit’s opinion in Perry v. Brown pushes hard to apply Romer v. Evans to the Prop 8 litigation.  The panel noted that the grant of full marital and parental rights to same-sex couples, while simultaneously denying them the word “marriage,” excised gay couples and their children with “surgical precision.” But such narrowness was not the problem in Romer; it […]

In contrast to Judge Walker’s maximalist opinion striking down Prop 8, it’s generally accepted that Judge Reinhardt’s opinion was minimalist. There’s a commonsense way in which the opinion is not at all minimalist. It reverses the results of a plebiscite, which followed the expenditure of $80 million and the mobilization of millions of voters. It brings […]

The Ninth Circuit’s opinion on the constitutionality of Prop 8 is expected tomorrow.  Chris Geidner summarizes the issues the panel may address: The long anticipated appeals court ruling is expected to address three issues: (1) whether former U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker should have recused himself from hearing the case because he is gay and had […]

John Corvino, a philosophy professor, notes a potential complication for Newt Gingrich’s claim that he has repented, namely, that he continues to commit adultery in the form of remarriage: Gingrich speaks with a straight face about the sanctity of “one man, one woman” marriage. . .  His defenders from the religious right . . . claim that Jesus offers forgiveness and redemption […]

This time we were debating a proposed amendment to the Minnesota state constitution banning same-sex marriages, although the focus was on the merits of same-sex marriage itself.  The debate was held at the University of St. Thomas Law School in Minneapolis and was hosted by the Terence J. Murphy Institute for Catholic Thought, Law and Public […]