Last night the Minnesota legislature capped a three-week end-of-session effort to ban same-sex marriage. The state senate approved the amendment on May 11. It then went to the state house of representatives. In the end, the vote was 70-62 in favor, two more than the 68 needed for passage onto the ballot. Sixty-eight Republicans (the […]
Archive | Gay Marriage
Live Video of Minnesota Marriage Amendment Debate
Today there’s a reasonable chance the Minnesota House of Representatives will be debating a proposed constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Since the session ends Monday, such a debate would need to happen soon, if it is going to happen at all. With Republicans holding a 72-62 edge […]
In Minnesota, An Amendment Protecting Marriage But Not Marriages
On the floor of the state senate last week, the sponsor of an amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman was asked by a colleague how the amendment would protect her marriage: For the full context of the exchange between the senators, see here. The state senate then voted to […]
Did Clement and K&S Just Have a Big Misunderstanding?
The BLT Blog notes a story in The Daily Report (for subscribers only) that suggests the flap over King & Spalding’s on-and-off representation of the House of Representatives in DOMA litigation was due to a misunderstanding about the firm’s internal vetting process. The story quotes a statement from K&S partner J. Sedwick “Wick” Sellers, who […]
Growing Republican Opposition to a Minnesota Marriage Amendment
The GOP sweep in Minnesota last fall was a mile wide and an inch deep. A switch of a few hundred votes in a few key districts would have left the house and senate in Democratic hands. Republicans won on promises to balance the budget, limit taxes and spending, and make the state more business-friendly. Social […]
Did Coke Pressure King & Spalding?
According to some accounts, King & Spalding was persuaded to drop its representation of the House of Representatives in litigation over the Defense of Marriage Act due to pressure from one of the Atlanta-based firm’s largest clients: Coca-Cola. If this is true, it raises some interesting legal ethics questions that the good folks at the […]
Anti-DOMA, Pro-Clement
It is gratifying to see that many of those who oppose DOMA have nonetheless praised Paul Clement’s willingness to defend the law, and his refusal to abandon the representation. From the Washingtonian : Clement, who has now joined the boutique law firm Bancroft, has plenty of support among his peers in the Washington legal community. […]
Paul Clement and the New McCarthyism
Here’s my take on the Clement kerfuffle Orin and Eugene blog about below. After the Obama Administration announced it would no longer defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), Congress opted to defend the law on its own. The Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group retained the services of King & Spalding’s Paul Clement, […]
Capitol Hill Panel on President Obama’s Decision Not to Defend DOMA
By Ilya Somin on March 15, 2011 10:05 pm in Constitutional Law, Constitutional Theory, Executive Branch, Gay Marriage
This Thursday, I will be taking part in a Federalist Society panel on President Obama’s decision not to defend DOMA in Court. Edward Whelan, President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and prominent legal blogger for National Review, will be on the panel with me, and my colleague Neomi Rao will moderate. The panel […]
Precedent for Presidential Refusal to Defend Statutes the Administration Believes to be Unconstitutional
By Ilya Somin on March 1, 2011 11:39 pm in Constitutional Law, Constitutional Theory, Executive Branch, Gay Marriage
Last week, I defended President Obama’s decision not to defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, on the grounds that the administration has concluded that it is unconstitutional. Although I disagree with some of the administration’s specific legal arguments in this case, I think the president’s duty to defend the Constitution supersedes his […]
Do Presidents Have a Duty to Defend the Constitutionality of Laws they Believe to be Unconstitutional?
By Ilya Somin on February 23, 2011 11:45 pm in Constitutional Law, Constitutional Theory, DOMA, Executive Branch, Gay Marriage
The Obama Administration’s decision not to defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act has inspired a great deal of criticism from commentators who believe that it is an unwise or illegitimate extension of executive power. The critics include Richard Epstein, Curt Levey, and our own Orin Kerr, among others. John Yoo argues that […]
Assessing the Impact of State Constitutional Amendments Banning Gay Marriage
By Ilya Somin on August 30, 2010 11:27 pm in Constitutional Amendments, Gay Marriage, Judicial Power
In this post commenting on the revelation that former Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman is gay, Yale lawprof Jack Balkin argues that the recent spate of state anti-gay marriage constitutional amendments may significantly retard progress towards gay equality: [Ken] Mehlman was the chair of the Bush 2004 presidential campaign, which deliberately used opposition to […]
Are Right and Left Changing Where They Stand on Standing?
By Ilya Somin on August 18, 2010 10:00 pm in Conservatism, Constitutional Law, Constitutional Theory, Gay Marriage, Health Care, Standing
Traditionally, conservative scholars and judges have advocated narrow views of constitutional “standing”: the level of “interest” litigants must have at stake in the outcome of a case in order to give them a legal right to sue. For their part, liberals have usually promoted the opposite view: constitutional rights should not be denied based on […]
Hasen on Ninth Circuit’s Stay in Prop. 8 Case
Rick Hasen of Election Law Blog reads the tea leaves of the Ninth Circuit’s granting of a stay in Perry v. Schwarzenegger at the ACSBlog. His bottom line: The grant of the stay request by the motions panel tells us very little about the Ninth Circuit’s likely resolution of the merits. for those who want […]
Ninth Circuit Expedites Second Prop. 8 Appeal
Today the motions panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit followed up on its order expediting the appeal in Perry v. Schwarzenegger with an order expediting the appeal filed by officials of Imperial County, California. Imperial County officials, including the Deputy County Clerk, has sought to intervene in defense of Proposition […]