Justice Scalia Compares Same Sex Marriage to Murder...

[Dino Velvet]

Legalize marriage for the gays but take it away from Armenians.

[fivekatz]

Roe vs Wade is one of the Court's most laudable decisions. It as stood as bulwark since 1973 against the idiotic superstition that a blastocyst is animated by magic spirit assigned to it by a sky god who was invented by an archaic desert people and against the religious right's demand that we should impose the consequences of this "sublime" belief on intelligent women who wish to use reason and science when making decisions about their own body.

I'm hoping against hope that the Court has the moral courage to make another decision like Roe vs Wade; that they recognize that marriage is for gays as well as straights and establish a precedent that protects gays and lesbians against the prejudices of our country's aged homophobic bigots until such time as they all die of old age.

My personal guess is that in the end the Justices kick the can down the road by ruling that the parties bring forth the suits have no right do and dismiss the cases without prejudice.

DOMA is the more troubling case for the judges even the homophobes who pretend to be strict constitutionalists until a case come along like this that just shatters the idea of Federalism being bad.

If in fact the right to marry for same sex couples is a state by state issue, then DOMA eventually becomes a problem because the Federal government as an employer in that state will be discriminating against same sex couples and denying them the rights of their state, in any state where same sex marriage has been deemed legal by the state of residence.

To me the justices would be on the wrong side of history to the tune of Dred Scott and far more likely to be overturned in their own lifetimes. Bit on the OTOH the court has been sculpted by multiple GOP Presidents to be a very myopic. tunnel vision group.

[trish]

Don't you just love the uniformity argument though? Without DOMA, the argument goes, some States might recognize same sex marriage while others might not thereby creating disparity in how gays are treated among the States. DOMA spares gays this horrible non-uniformity and guarantees instead that they will be uniformly discriminated against.

[fivekatz]

Don't you just love the uniformity argument though? Without DOMA, the argument goes, some States might recognize same sex marriage while others might not thereby creating disparity in how gays are treated among the States. DOMA spares gays this horrible non-uniformity and guarantees instead that they will be uniformly discriminated against.

I think that the uniformity issue actually seals the fate of same sex marriage in as far as eventually whatever this court decides they will create a situation where Federal law does not create fair and equal treatment in all the states.

If the court rules DOMA unconstitutional it will under cut the states that do not recognize same sex marriage and while it may take the rest of this decade all 50 states will come into line with the Federal government.

If the court upholds DOMA there is sure to be appeals that there is unequal treatment in states that allow same sex marriage and the Federal governments policy in those states.

If the court kicks the can down road (rules that the current petitioners have no legal standing in the case) it will surely reappear.

The entire argument is fair and equal treatment under the law and the lack of conformity IMHO is a friend of those wishing to end this form of discrimination in the long run.

[Ben]