SCOTUS to hear same sex marriage case

[popeyespappy]

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/12/07/sup...-marriage/

[Angrboda]

Far out.

[Violet]

I hope that's a good thing. Simplifies shit

[Minimalist]

You never can tell. The Defense of Marriage Act should be unconstitutional since Article IV, Section 1 is written right into the constitution.

The California thing might be narrowly decided to apply only to California.

[popeyespappy]

There's a lot of ways any decision could go ranging from very narrow to it's none of the governments business what gender someone is. I wouldn't be too hopeful though with 5 Catholics on the bench.

[Jackalope]

You never know. Many Catholics are able to separate their political views from church doctrine. Joe Biden is RCC, and is pro marriage equality.

It will be interesting to see the line of questioning the justices choose to take.

[TaraJo]

I'm a little nervous about this. The court still leans a bit conservative. I was hoping Scalia or Thomas would kick the bucket before they rule on this. Anyone want to send the two of them a bucket of extra fatty fried chicken and a side of fried cheese?

I jest.

I don't think they'll be able to limit the ruling strictly to California. If a case is brought before the Supreme Court, it's a question about whether something violates the constitution. If Prop 8 violates the constitution when it forbids same sex marriage in California, I can't see how it would violate the constitution any less in another state.

It scares me because of the impact the ruling will have. If the court rules against us, I can't see any of the other courts ruling against same sex marriage laws and GLBT marriage cases will grind to a halt for quite a while. If the court rules for us, it could easily open the flood gates to GLBT rights, not just marriage (in fact, the reason marriage is such a big deal to us is because there are so many marriage rights that don't apply to us).

Still, if you pay attention to history, you can see that this is a loosing battle for the side fighting against marriage equality. When DOMA was passed, the population was so overwhelmingly against gay marriage that I didn't even think it would make a difference. Now, just a short 15 years later, over half the nation supports same sex marriage. Think how many more will be on our side in another 5 years? Or 10 years? Or, 15 years from now will things have flipped around to the point that religious conservatives are telling us how religious people were the ones fighting for GLBT rights and refusing to acknowledge how they used their religion as a tool to beat down the same rights they're trying to champion?

[Minimalist]

I don't think they'll be able to limit the ruling strictly to California.

California was the only state where it was legal, then the state passed a constitutional amendment making it illegal and the Court of Appeals ruled the amendment "unconstitutional."

That is a fairly unique tale. They can rule "yes" or "no" on the Appellate decision without impacting any other state.

[Jackalope]

California was the only state where it was legal, then the state passed a constitutional amendment making it illegal and the Court of Appeals ruled the amendment "unconstitutional."

That is a fairly unique tale. They can rule "yes" or "no" on the Appellate decision without impacting any other state.

If the appellant in the case (which I have not looked at yet) is only raising the issue of whether the state constitutional amendment passes muster against the federal constitution, it is extremely likely that the SCOTUS will narrowly tailor the ruling.

In other words, it's unlikely that they're going to answer any questions not directly asked of the court.

However, even if the ruling is narrow in scope, it will serve as precedent for future decisions. So while a win may not provide immediate nationwide relief, it will be a significant step in the right direction.

[TaraJo]

However, even if the ruling is narrow in scope, it will serve as precedent for future decisions. So while a win may not provide immediate nationwide relief, it will be a significant step in the right direction.

I think that's kinda what it comes down to. If the SCOTUS rules in our favor, it wouldn't be hard to have same sex marriage approved in other states like Texas, North Carolina or Utah. All you have to do is keep pressing the issue before enough judges until it's either overturned or it's before the supreme court. In fact, I can't help but imagine that some of the anti-marriage crowd would try to redouble their efforts elsewhere if stopping marriage equality becomes an obviously loosing battle for them (which actually kinda terrifies me when I think about the kind of places they may decide to put that time and energy if not preventing same sex marriage).