California judge rules ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional

It's not that they can't read and follow it, I don't think. It's just that it's a difficult document to apply. Lots of ambiguities.

 

Dear California,

What took you so damn long?

BTW, we still hold claim to first in the nation when it comes to gay marriages and caucuses.

Peace out suckas,

Iowa

 

Yeah but the two gay people who live in Iowa can't stand each other so the law hasn't helped much.

 

About time.

The biggest threat to heterosexual marriage comes from heterosexuals.

 

I know this is hard for you to understand--most things are--but referendums have no place in deciding civil rights issues.

 

JR gets it exactly right.

I guess the activist judges shouldn't have ruled on Brown vs. Board of Education either...

 

Zag, actually I would. I would believe that they got it wrong, but I would support the system.

 

This may end up in the Supreme Court.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/konrad-yakabuski/overturning-california-gay-marriage-ban-pushes-issue-closer-to-supreme-court/article1662256/

The only way to equalize rights across the country would be if Congress itself legalized gay marriage (not likely, given the unbending opposition of senators from conservative states and President Barack Obama himself) or through a Supreme Court ruling.

 

Reminded me of this comic I liked: http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1748

 

1. The general voting population is stupider than shit. The courts are needed to keep our dumb asses in check.

2. I think this exact same post was a letter to the editor to an Alabama newspaper after the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

The point is, it's possible--and this case definite--that 52 percent of California made an unconstitutional vote in 2008. If everything were left to general state elections, Alabama and Mississippi would still have colored water fountains.

 

I'm pleased to see that the judge used the argument of the 14th Amendment's due process equal protection clauses, both of which I've previously and frequently argued were reasons the government could not and should not prohibit same-sex marriage.

In our country's shameful civil rights history, it's been the courts where people have earned their rights to marry people of different races, where African Americans earned the right to vote without submitting to literacy tests, etc. Had we waited for public referendum for any of those, we might still be waiting.

Congress only passed the Civil Rights Act after the Supreme Court issued its decision in Brown v. Board of Education a decade earlier. It's the job of the judiciary to interpret the laws of the country to ensure that they apply evenly to all its citizens. Until every state, city and territory in the country allows two consenting adults to marry each other, there won't be liberty and justice for all.

 

Bingo. Thanks for a great post