Tuesday, October 07, 2014

State denied their day in court on same-sex marriage

The following is a press release from The Family Foundation of Kentucky released today:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LEXINGTON, KY—"States who believe they have the right to define marriage in their states have been denied their day in court," said a spokesman for The Family Foundation in response to yesterday's decision by the U.S. Supreme Court not to hear the appeals of five states on the same-sex marriage issue. "This decision is so blatantly political it seems to have surprised even supporters of same-sex marriage."

"This also gets Justice Anthony Kennedy, the swing vote on this issue, off the hook on having to contradict the position he set out in the Windsor decision," said Martin Cothran, senior policy analyst for the group. When the Court struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) last year, Kennedy, who wrote the majority decision, had argued that the federal government could not have such a law because it violated the right of states to define marriage.

"The Supreme Court struck down the federal marriage law on the grounds that states have a right to define marriage. But they will have to strike down state marriage laws on the grounds that they don't have that right. By punting yesterday, they were able to force same-sex marriage on states without having to face the contradiction in their reasoning."

Cothran said that if the federal government is going to dictate marriage policy to the states, "it ought to at least allow both sides their day in court. History will not judge the Court well if it acts politically like this and doesn't even allow states to argue their case."

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4 comments:

KyCobb said...

Martin,

They had their day in District Court, and they had their day in Circuit Court. Almost no-one gets a day in the Supreme Court unless there is a very good reason for it, like a split on the law between circuits. No such split currently exists, and the Court clearly determined that its limited time to hear cases could be better used than listening to the pathetic rationalizations for bigotry the marriage equality opponents have been offering up.

KyCobb said...

Changes are coming rapidly now; yesterday the 9th Circuit struck down the same-sex marriage bans in Nevada and Idaho, after those two states had their day in court. Nevada is accepting the inevitable; there is still a chance that Idaho will continue a futile legal battle.

Martin Cothran said...

KyCobb,

Your "political might makes right" philosophy is forming this picture in my mind of you in a cassock, sitting in a big chair and pointing at conservatives saying, in an evil voice, "It is your dessstiny!"

KyCobb said...

Martin,

You can keep fighting for this lost cause if you like, but you ought to be able to look at the facts objectively and recognize the cause is lost. We will be issuing you your new husband at the end of the month. Bwahahahaha!