My question: by what authority did the judge “decline” to rule? Is that like nobama deciding to not support DOMA?
From the article I linked:
In his decision issued Tuesday, District Judge Brian Cogan said the constitutional question has no bearing on his opinion about the injunction. "In the interest of judicial restraint, the Supreme Court has counseled that a court should not decide a constitutional question unless the question is absolutely necessary to the court's decision," he said.
P.S. I first found the referenced article through a google search and just noticed that when you follow a direct link it only shows a preview. A trick to get around this and see the complete article is to search for the title in google then click the link in google and you should see the complete article...
If I had to guess, I’d say he declined under the political question doctrine. ICBW.