Your Same Sex Marriage Open Thread

T-minus 1 hour until SCOTUS announces their decisions on DOMA and Prop. 8. I’m cautiously optimistic on DOMA, and afraid they will wimp out and use some bullshit standing argument to not decide Prop. 8.

You can follow the announcement of the decisions live at scotusblog.com – I’ll try to follow and update, but I may still be sleeping at 7 am PDT after the Tuesday night Texas Lege trainwreck. Share your thoughts and reactions below.

UPDATE:

9:55 EDT: Five minute buzzer

10:01 EDT: DOMA is dead! 5-4 by Kennedy.  “DOMA singles out a class of persons deemed by a State entitled to recognition and protection to enhance their own liberty. […] The federal statute is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and injure those whom the State, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity. By seeking to displace this protection and treating those persons as living in marriages less respected than others.”

10:11 EDT: SCOTUSblog says the dissent in DOMA implies they refused to take jurisdiction on Prop 8.

10:18 EDT: Scalia is reading his entire dissent from the bench, so we have a little time to spare. No word if Alito is rolling his eyes and sighing like he did yesterday when Ginsburg dissented from the Voting Rights Act decision.

10:26 EDT: Perry decision: Petitioners didn’t have standing to appeal to the 9th Circuit or SCOTUS. Northern District of California decision stands.  “We have never before upheld the standing of a private party to defend the constitutionality of a state statute when state officials have chosen not to. We decline to do so for the first time here.”

10:30 EDT: Folks standing in line at San Francisco City Hall:

city hall

29 Comments

Alrighty, coffee is poured, Republicans in Texas lost last night, I have scotusblog.com up and running, let’s get this show on the road.

@Benedick: Tell the puppehs to cross their paws, too.

So much for those predictions of a 6-3 decision with Roberts choosing the right side of history.

@mellbell: With Citizens’ United, yesterdays’s voting rights decision, and now this I think Roberts’s place in history is clear.

DOMA gone? Or at least, the part that applies to me, aka the important part, PLUS the update to Angry Birds Star Wars for my iMac, all within 5 mins????

I think I’m going to cry.

@mellbell: Indeed.
@Benedick: Let’s not forget stripping Native American tribes of their rights.

From their liveblog of another, unrelated decision: “I know none of you care, but the statute in Sekar [sic] was originally designed for prosecuting mobsters engaged in extortion rackets.” Ha.

Well, I’ve got 112 pages of reading to do.

Now let’s replace the national anthem with Madonna’s Vogue and show KKKonservatives what hell on earth is really like.

Your Same Sex Open Marriage Thread?

Okay, here’s the breakdown on the Prop 8 decision: ROBERTS, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which SCALIA,
GINSBURG, BREYER, and KAGAN, JJ., joined. KENNEDY, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which THOMAS, ALITO, and SOTOMAYOR, JJ., joined.

Have we ever seen things aligned like that?

So what’s Scalia dithering on about? I can’t bring myself to listen.

@¡Andrew!: Pride is going to be KRAZY! Party tonight at 6pm at Castro and Market.

Maybe Ginsberg will roll her eyes and make jacking off motions while Scalia drones on with the dissent.

So if petitioners in Perry lack standing, then the lower court’s decision stands and marriages in California may resume enseguida, correct?

@¡Andrew!: Si. Some county clerks’ offices were prepared for this, apparently that’s why there was a line of couples at SF City Hall at 6:30 am.

Meanwhile, in the World of Sport, Mr. SFL texts me: “In other good news, NCAA sanctions were minimal on the Ducks. Fines. No bowl bans.”

Speaking of SCOTUS decisions that make us crazy one way or another, what do you guys think of the one that effectively negates the Miranda right to silence and 5th amendment right against incriminating oneself (unless one is highly educated, of course)?

So apparently it’s for Pride Month and not specific to today’s rulings, but try a Google search for “gay” and see what happens.

SF Giant Tim Lincecum, upset to learn that the DOMA decision does not require states without gay marriage to recognize gay marriages conducted in states where that is legal, throws baseballs into the dirt at the wrong time and the lousy Dodgers sweep the crummy Giants.

@Dodgerblue: ouch.
@IanJ: That one’s in my stack of cases to read. I want to read the ICWA case too.

@SanFranLefty: I’ll be very curious to hear your thoughts. The implications seem huge, and I’m kind of surprised not to have seen more coverage of it.

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