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 […]
Archive | Same-Sex Marriage
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 […]
Jonathan Rauch (a Leading Proponent of Same-Sex Marriage Rights) on the Paul Clement Matter
The post is at Independent Gay Forum’s CultureWatch. The conclusion: Just guessing, but I don’t think Paul Clement’s having been pushed to a smaller firm is going to change the Supreme Court’s judgment on DOMA. I don’t think it’s going to deter the other side from going to court. I don’t even think it will […]
Attorney General Eric Holder on Paul Clement
BLT (The Blog of the Legal Times) reports: “Paul Clement is a great lawyer,” [Attorney General Eric] Holder said today, addressing reporters at the Justice Department. “He has done a lot of really great things for this nation. In taking on representing Congress in connection with [the Defense of Marriage Act], I think he was […]
Justice Department Will No Longer Defend Defense of Marriage Act
The Associated Press is reporting that President Obama has concluded that the Department of Justice should no longer defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriage. [Oops. I see Dale beat me to it, so I’m closing comments.]
A Reflection on the Recent District Court Decision
In the last year, readers of this blog have seen lots of posts on a major constitutional issue that is likely to reach the Supreme Court soon. And just recently, a District Court Judge issued a stunningly broad decision holding that the controversial law at issue is unconstitutional. Such a decision would have been considered […]
Judge Reinhardt’s Memorandum Opinion Explaining His Decision Not To Recuse Himself in the Same-Sex Marriage Case
I haven’t read the opinion yet, but I wanted to link to it, especially because I had blogged about the motion to recuse last month. Thanks to How Appealing for the pointer.
Jonathan Rauch on Gay Rights and the Rights of Opponents of Homosexuality
A very interesting and thoughtful article, in The Advocate, from a leading supporter of same-sex marriage rights. Here’s an excerpt: [Gay rights opponents] have developed a narrative that goes like this: Gay rights advocates don’t just want legal equality. They want to brand anyone who disagrees with them, on marriage or anything else, as the […]
Ah, Reinhardt
As Dale notes below, the randomly chosen panel of the Ninth Circuit that will be hearing the Prop 8 case includes Stephen Reinhardt, the most-reversed Court of Appeals judge in the land. I’m reminded of this famous line from Casablanca: Michael Hawkins is also on the panel, and in my experience he pretty reliably votes […]
County Clerk’s Office May Have Duty to Accommodate Employee With Religious Objections to Processing Same-Sex Domestic Partnerships
By Eugene Volokh on October 7, 2010 8:34 pm in Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom, Same-Sex Marriage
So holds Slater v. Douglas County (D. Or. Sept. 24, 2010) (just released on Westlaw today). For more on the general structure of employers’ duty to accommodate religious objectors (under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended in 1972), see this post. Here’s a longish excerpt from the Slater decision, applying […]
Generic Op-Ed for Judge Walker’s SSM Decision
With lots of media attention focused on Judge Walker’s SSM decision, I decided to write a generic op-ed that any paper or website can use. Just pick the right word you want in parenthesis — conservatives pick the first word, and liberals pick the second. FOLLOW THE CONSTITUTION Judge Walker’s decision on same-sex marriage is […]
“Stay True to the Constitution”
Based on recent comment threads, both sides in the debate on the constitutionality of SSM are extremely confident that they are right and their cause is just and true. All that confidence makes it a little hard to tell the two sides apart. For example, I came across the following comment about what the Supreme […]
Who Will Be on the Ninth Circuit Panel in Perry?
The liberal blog Empty Wheel has an interesting post on which three Ninth Circuit judges might be on the appellate panel (edit: just to be clear, I mean the Ninth Circuit merits panel, not the motions panel that will hear the stay denial in the next few days): There has not yet been a formal […]
Will Perry v. Schwarzenegger Be Moot By the Time it Reaches the Supreme Court?
David S. Cohen has this very interesting post on that question at Faculty Lounge. UPDATE: Upon hearing the news that Judge Walker denied a stay on appeal, but will allow a six-day window to let the defendant-intervenors seek one from higher courts, I plugged in my MagnaZen X53b Crystal Ball and turned it on. It […]
A Question for Readers Who Think The Constitution Required States to Recognize Same-Sex Marriage Before 1900
This is a follow-up to my post below on the reader polls about attitudes toward same-sex marriage. In the fourth of the four polls, I asked readers who think that the Constitution requires states to recognize same-sex marriage to say when the Constitution began to require it. Slightly more than half the readers who answered […]