Posted on 01/14/2014 2:33:09 PM PST by BurningOak
Today U.S. District Judge Terence Kern ruled that Oklahoma’s ban on marriage equality is unconstitutional. His ruling is stayed pending appeal, meaning marriages will not occur immediately in the Sooner State.
...
The ruling comes on the heels of a year-long string of electoral, judicial and legislative victories for marriage equality. In recent weeks both the New Mexico Supreme Court and a federal district judge in Utah have ruled in favor of marriage for lesbian and gay couples.
(Excerpt) Read more at hrc.org ...
Apparently, nearly everybody has to try it for some reason.
Because the President can take over the state guard "to execute the Laws of the Union." (U.S. Const., Art. I, sec. 8, cl. 15). The last time I can remember where a state refused to enforce a federal court order was when the federal courts ordered the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. The federal judge sent U.S. Marshals to enforce the order; the Governor called out the National Guard to block them; so President Eisenhower federalized the National Guard and the school was desegregated.
Then we need to un-federalize the guard.
I’ll supply the accelerant.
If this be the logical conclusion, then a state should come out and flatly say that NO relationships will be recognized. If one wants a ‘marriage’ then find some religious institution to perform it. If you want the legal/economic benefits that used to come with state recognized marriage then obtain a civil contract to meet those needs.
Decision is up: http://www.scribd.com/doc/199722739/4-04-cv-00848-272
The meat of it:
The Supreme Court has not expressly reached the issue of whether state laws prohibiting same-sex marriage violate the U.S. Constitution. However, Supreme Court law now prohibits states from passing laws that are born of animosity against homosexuals, extends constitutional protection to the moral and sexual choices of homosexuals, and prohibits the federal government from treating opposite-sex marriages and same-sex marriages differently. There is no precise legal label for what has occurred in Supreme Court jurisprudence beginning with Romer in 1996 and culminating in Windsor in 2013, but this Court knows a rhetorical shift when it sees one. Against this backdrop, the Court’s task is to determine whether Part A of the Oklahoma Constitutional Amendment deprives a class of Oklahoma citizens – namely, same-sex couples desiring an Oklahoma marriage license – of equal protection of the law. Applying deferential rationality review, the Court searched for a rational link between exclusion of this class from civil marriage and promotion of a legitimate governmental objective. Finding none, the Court’s66 Case 4:04-cv-00848-TCK-TLW Document 272 Filed in USDC ND/OK on 01/14/14 rationality review reveals Part A as an arbitrary, irrational exclusion of just one class of Oklahoma citizens from a governmental benefit. Equal protection is at the very heart of our legal system and central to our consent to be governed. It is not a scarce commodity to be meted out begrudgingly or in short portions. Therefore, the majority view in Oklahoma must give way to individual constitutional rights. The Bishop couple has been in a loving, committed relationships for many years. They own property together, wish to retire together, wish to make medical decisions for one another, and wish to be recognized as a married couple with all its attendant rights and responsibilities. Part A of the Oklahoma Constitutional Amendment excludes the Bishop couple, and all otherwise eligible same-sex couples, from this privilege without a legally sufficient justification.
I go back and forth between faint optimism and maximum negativity.
It was only 3-4 years ago that, every referendum except 1, voted to outlaw homosexual marriage. This even included California.
Now liberal and progressive judges are destroying the will of the people.
If they can do this, they can do anything they wish, take any freedom.
There is no Republican, Conservative, Constitutionalist or Libertarian that is going to save us.
I believe we are down to our final destruction. Only a massive Revolution will save us. Or a Spiritual Renewal.
I agree with you. I think the best possible scenario at this point would be the break-up of the country.
We already have universal marriage equality. Anyone can be married as long as they follow the rule that everyone else has to follow, namely marrying someone of the opposite sex. They don’t want equality. They want special privledges that go above and beyond the privledges of others. I guess some animals really are more equal than others.
“ban on marriage equality”
I’ll say one thing about progressives. they sure do know how to spin the language.
Back in 1776, the king’s lackeys were making rulings to suppress liberty. John Rutledge threw the king’s governor out of South Carolina. It’s time for states to read the riot act to these black-robe tyrants.
The notion of a license to mate is ridiculous.
If Americans don’t start taking these black-robed demigods out to the hanging tree, then they deserve to be slaves.
“state governments will fold like cheap lawn chairs.”
Really? You smell like a DU troll on a mission to demoralize conservatives and the advances they’ve made in the past 3 years. Tell us how many states are controlled by patriots and conservatives vs the number controlled by liberal commies and fascists.
Its gonna be hard to find a state more conservative than the Oakies.Not one county in the whole state voted for the Marxist,not one.
Which states are more conservative than Oklahoma and Utah? I believe the reason they were challenged is because they are two of the most conservative states.
I’m not familiar with Oklahoma’s ban on gay marriage. Is it a state constitutional ban or was it just a state law?
I suspect he’s right, though - all those Republican governors talking so tough, standing up to the Feds over same-sex benefits for state Guardsmen? It only took about three months before every one of those brave 10th Amendment warriors folded.
I think we need to focus on establishing as many religious protections and exemptions as possible; SCOTUS won’t be able to avoid the issue much longer, if lower courts keep ruling this way.
“Really? You smell like a DU troll on a mission to demoralize conservatives and the advances they’ve made in the past 3 years. Tell us how many states are controlled by patriots and conservatives vs the number controlled by liberal commies and fascists.”
Sorry to offend your gentle sensibilities.
How many states are controlled by patriots vs fascists/commies? Lets see, patriots believe in states rights and limited Constitutional federal government. Progressives believe in total federal control of the states directly (communism) or indirectly (fascism).
So how many states are controlled by each side?
Progressives 50 Patriots 0.
Sure some states are much better than others, Texas is obviously more free than Massachusetts. But they all ultimately bow to the federal dollar. We saw this recently when Obama started giving homosexual couples benefits in state national guards. A bunch of conservative governors screamed and shouted, said they will never give them benefits, but in the end they all folded, Texas included, because they all take federal money, they all have millions of retirees dependent on social security and medicare. They know the federal government owns them.
Show me a state that takes no money from the federal government, supports its own retirees and poor people, funds its own national guard, and I will show you a patriotic, conservative state.
Either that or moving to Russia and having them invade the US to fumigate the liberals.
There needs to be a dialog between the states, that they are sovereign and can enforce their rights when the federal judiciary is out of control. Just REFUSE to give the licenses. If the feds sue, just don’t pay. The ultimate end of it all will be whether the feds are willing to send in the troops to force a state to submit.
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