“State laws requiring segregation of blacks from whites are another matter and are unconstitutional (14th Amendment). The feds have a Constitutional right to interfere with state laws that require segregation of blacks from whites.”
The 14th Amendment says nothing about blacks and whites:
“Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
What the court is relying on is the equal protection clause. The courts have consistently held that under the equal protection clause, the states have a very strong burden to show why it is necessary to discriminate against any class of people. It was up to the state in the trial court to present evidence showing why it was vital to Texas to prevent gay marriages. Apparently the judge felt the record was not strong enough.
Sounds like Texas didn’t do a very good job following through on presenting the necessary evidence, for some reason. Or maybe Texas did a good job, but the trial court was just too prejudiced to see it. In any event, the 5th Circuit will review the record and make its own decision.
“What the court is relying on is the equal protection clause. The courts have consistently held that under the equal protection clause, the states have a very strong burden to show why it is necessary to discriminate against any class of people.”
No, in the claim that “the states have a very strong burden to show why it is necessary to discriminate against any class of people”, a claim of “the coourts”, and only in the last 50-60 years, are making their own, “living constitution” reinvention of the “equal protection clause”.
The truth of that is in how many of the progressive judges uses of the “equal protection clause” were not given validity in the Surpreme Court - when the people involved and the intellects and legal analysis was closer to the original intent of it - until the progressive era.
I’ll break it down for you.
“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States”
(look up the meanings in use then of “privelges and immunities)
nothing in that part restricts states from defining the MEANING OF a condition over which it further prescribes, and proscribes eligibility thereto.
The arguments about marriage are not about eligibility, within the definition of marriage - which was the case involving racial discrimination in marriage laws, it is about the very foundational definition of marriage, BEYOND wich - once you get past that, the states cannot “discriminate”.
“nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”
Everyone is entitled to have the law, and only the law applied against, or for them, not the mere whim of a law enforcement person(s) or the judge(s) - just the law. That is one part of “due process”.
And everyone is entitled to “their day in court”, to quetion in a court of law how and why any law enforcement measure is/was set against them, or is not/was failed to be used for them. (that does not mean a claim is right, only that everyone has the right to seek redress in court)
“nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws”
The laws, AS WRITTEN, cannot stand protecting one citizen and then fail to stand protecting another citizen for whom the same law and any protection of it is intended. (The law cannot say here is the qualification for a liquor license, and then have those who issue the license simply pick and chose who they give it to, and in the process, by their whim, denying it to an applicant that met all the requirements. The law said X and those in charge did Y - that is not “equal protection”. (The context of the intention in “equal protection”: A black man seeking redress in accordance with the law only to have the law enforcers and the courts fail to apply the law, as it is written, in his case, as it would to anyone else, is denied “equal protection”.)
None of that extends “equal protection” to a demand that marriage as defined, be redefined, not just given extended eligibility but redefined.
If “equal protection” stands as rhe “living constitution” progressive judges are using it in regard to “same sex” “marriage”, then it will only be by a deceitful and hypocritical whim, and not honesty and reason, that the same judges will be able to deny “marriage” to just about anyone that demands it, for if “government has no “over riding interest” in DEFINING marriage as between a man and women, it has lost all rational for restricting marriage from anyone who wants it, for, the ONLY “over riding” interest in accepting a “right” to “same-sex” marriage is that “same-sex” couples desire it, and that desire is taken as making the claim for it legitimate. Whose desire for it can they deny except deceitfully and hypocritically.
The polygamists are not stupid. They have been following this whole process with glee and their lawyers have carefully noticed the progressive judges illicit rationale for approving “same sex” marriage, and they know, very well, those same judges are going to be squirming in their seats to want to take back their rationale when the plygamist’s lawyers come calling. Which won’t be long now.