DOMA & Prop 8 are dead dead DEAD!

[topdog]

Could that kind of change be a trigger for a law suit that makes it all the way up to the supremes and forces them to rule definitively on gay marriage?

B.

Yes, that is the end game: a case that goes to the Supreme Court that challenges the outright discrimination (for no perceivable benefit) of state's limiting marriage to heterosexual couples only. The Prop 8 case did that, but A) the court wasn't ready to decide this question, and B) the Prop 8 defense had the baggage of questionable standing.

But just like President Obama, I think we can fairly say that the court is "evolving" on this issue. The ladies and Kennedy are ready. Scalia and Thomas will never go there. Alito isn't likely either, but I think Roberts is reachable. If Obama gets to put a member in the court, then it won't matter whether we get Roberts or not.

Eventually the Supremes will agree with the original ruling in the Prop 8 case by Judge Walker Walker who said that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional "under both the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses" . When they do that, not only will every marriage restriction be thrown out in every state - any law that treats homosexuals different from heterosexuals will be subject to "heightened scrunity". In other words, unless the law has an obvious benefit or protection for society, it will be considered unconstitutional.

That means employment discrimination is illegal (Cracker Barrel), adoption restrictions are gone, every little county or municipal homophobic restriction immediately becomes unconstitutional. Not because marriage is now legal, but because the legal argument used to establish it also implies that any law that treats gays different from straights is now assumed to be illegal.

That is the big Kahuna of gay rights that can only come from the courts.

 

[jakes2]

As a person who worked for equal rights thirty years ago this makes me happy. I never thought we would go this far this fast.

 

[Stoic]

I hope those Republican justices retire early so Obama can get another Ruth Ginsburg.