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A federal judge struck down Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage today, an historic ruling with especial resonance on Valentine's Day. Except the history of the historic ruling isn't exactly up to par: Judge Arenda Wright Allen claimed the Constitution declares that "all men are created equal," which is, instead, the first line of the Declaration of Independence. "Our Constitution declares that 'all men' are created equal. Surely this means all of us," Judge Allen wrote on the first page of her opinion. That line opens the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence and appears nowhere in the Constitution. The...

“We made a commitment to each other in our love and lives, and now had the legal commitment, called marriage, to match. Isn't that what marriage is? ... I have lived long enough now to see big changes. The older generation's fears and prejudices have given way, and today's young people realize that if someone loves someone they have a right to marry. Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don't think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have...

The Ninth Circuit’s decision in Peruta v. San Diego, released minutes ago, affirms the right of law-abiding citizens to carry handguns for lawful protection in public. California law has a process for applying for a permit to carry a handgun for protection in public, with requirements for safety training, a background check, and so on. These requirements were not challenged. The statute also requires that the applicant have “good cause,” which was interpreted by San Diego County to mean that the applicant is faced with current specific threats. (Not all California counties have this narrow interpretation.) The Ninth Circuit, in...

Via Gabe Malor, who’s already found the tastiest chestnuts in the opinion. The novelty here isn’t the ruling itself but the court issuing it. It’s the Ninth Circuit, which has jurisdiction over the west coast and typically leans left thanks to liberal all-stars like Stephen Reinhardt. (He wasn’t part of the panel that heard this one, thankfully.) With today’s ruling, the Ninth joins the Seventh in holding that the Second Amendment, just as it says, includes a right to “bear” arms. States can regulate that right but they can’t ban it altogether. Three other federal appellate courts have ruled the...

HASTINGS, Minn. – Attorneys with a nationally-recognized Christian legal group have filed a lawsuit on behalf of a car dealership in Minnesota that is seeking an exemption from what has become known as the abortion pill mandate in Obamacare. The Liberty Institute of Plano, Texas filed the suit on Wednesday on behalf of Hastings Automotive, Inc. and Hastings Chrysler Center, along with their owner, Doug Erickson, who is a Christian. The organization notes that Erickson’s beliefs as a Christian prevent him from being involved in acts that destroy human life. “Plaintiffs base their challenge on their sincerely held religious belief...

The supreme court of Maine has issued an opinion declaring that transgender children in the state’s public schools must be allowed to choose their own bathrooms despite their genitalia or how uncomfortable other students may feel about it. The 5-1 decision, which came down on Thursday, marks the first time any state’s high court has ruled that transgender kids can use the bathroom with which they identify rather than the one matching their biological trappings, reports the Bangor Daily News. The case, which originated in 2009 and stagnated for years in Maine’s courts, involved a fifth-grade student who wanted to...

<p>A federal judge on Thursday upheld Connecticut's tough gun control law that was passed in the wake of the deadly 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.</p> <p>The stringent law is constitutional, said the ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Alfred Covello, denying a legal challenge by a group of gun owners.</p>

President Obama has named a Black lesbian from Illinois to serve on the federal court, according to The Washington Blade. Obama nominated Staci Michelle Yandle for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois on Jan. 16 as part of a group of four nominees. U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin ( D-Ill. ) recommended Yandle, who will need confirmation from the U.S. Senate before she's seated on the bench. According to her firm's website, Yandle opened her own firm in 2007 ( after two decades of practice ) "to concentrate on representing victims of medical malpractice,...

An Oregon bakery stands by its decision to deny a cake for a same-sex wedding. The owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa tell KATU-TV that their religious beliefs have not changed after Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries determined the Portland-area bakery violated the civil rights of a same-sex couple. Owner Aaron Klein says it almost seems as if the state is hostile toward Christian businesses....

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - A federal judge is considering a U.S. constitutional challenge to a voter-approved 2004 amendment to the Michigan Constitution that ban's same sex marriages. Similar challenges are working their way through courts around the country. In less than a month, federal judges in Oklahoma and Utah have struck down state bans on gay marriage for the same reason, concluding that they violate the U.S. Constitution's promise of equal treatment under the law.

In modern America, sex is increasingly where it should be: outside the reach of government. Anti-sodomy statutes have been tossed by the Supreme Court. Contraception is widely accessible. Anyone with a computer can gorge on pornography without fear of prosecution. Same-sex marriage has been legalized in 18 states and the District of Columbia. Now another step has been taken to expel police and legislators from the bedrooms of consenting adults: a federal court decision striking down a key element of Utah's ban on polygamy. Last month, District Judge Clark Waddoups ruled that the law infringes not only on constitutionally protected...

Federal District Court Judge William M. Skretny has found that most provisions of NY’s SAFE Act–passed only one month after the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting–do not infringe the Second Amendment. He did, however, find that the provision that limits magazine capacity to only seven rounds was unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. This seemingly small win for gun owners is actually very important. Almost no semi-automatic pistols have 7-round magazines available. Because semi-automatic pistols are the overwhelming preference for civilian self-defense–as well as for police and military use–the 7-round limit would have effectively banned the large majority of semi-automatic pistols...

On Dec. 23, I debated George Washington Law Prof. Jonathan Turley on NPR’s “On Point” regarding his court fight to legalize polygamy. This is a bigger issue for American society than it may seem at first, since it ultimately reflects two different views on the meaning of the U.S. Constitution and what it means to live in a free society.(VIDEO-AT-LINK)As Breitbart News previously reported, on Dec. 13 Judge Clark Waddoup in Utah declared that the U.S. Constitution includes a right to marry more than one person at a time (i.e., polygamy) in Brown v. Buhman. Therefore, Utah’s law limiting marriage...

Ohio officials must recognize the marriages of same-sex couples who married out of state for purposes of being considered married on death certificates, a federal judge ruled on Monday. Judge Timothy Black had granted a temporary injunction for James Obergefell and John Arthur in July, ordering that their marriage be recognized on his death certificate should Arthur — who was in hospice care — die. Since then, Arthur died, but the case was amended to included a funeral director who wanted to ensure that he would be protected should he list same-sex couples as married, as well as another individual...

An Obama appointee to the federal bench ruled Friday that the right to same-sex marriage is “deeply rooted in the nation’s history and implicit in the concept of ordered liberty,” and as such is a fundamental right. Judge Robert J. Shelby was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Central Division of Utah in 2012 by President Obama, then confirmed by a Senate voice vote on Sept. 21, 2012, with neither debate nor objection, according to CNS News. A federal district court is a court of original jurisdiction, but if its opinions are left unchallenged, they become the law...

Last Friday, a U.S. District Court struck down a central part of the Utah statute that outlaws polygamy. The ruling was not just a victory for the husband and wives who had brought the suit to court—Kody, Meri, Janelle, Christine, and Robyn Brown, who belong to a Mormon splinter church called the Apostolic United Brethren and star in a reality TV show called Sister Wives. Nor was it merely a victory for families with more than two spouses. It was a victory for sane public policy. The case is drenched in the politics of polygamy, but in one important way...

A New Jersey judge’s contorted and nonsensical decision that the state is responsible for the federal government’s failure to recognize same-sex marriage highlights the irrationality that permeates the campaign for “marriage equality.” One of the most striking features of the campaign for same-sex marriage has been the prominence of its assault on reasoning itself. The logical relations of legal categories with one another, as those categories represent persons, their interactions, and their rights and duties, are at the heart of all legal decision-making and ideally inform legislative and administrative policymaking as well. But the impulse to redefine marriage so that...

The Senate voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to confirm Todd Hughes to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, making him the first openly gay judge to serve on an appeals court in the United States. The Senate confirmed Hughes, a lawyer in the U.S. Department of Justice's civil division, by a vote of 98-0.

A multibillion dollar case between two giant pharmaceutical companies grappling over arcane antitrust issues has unexpectedly turned into a gay rights legal imbroglio that raises questions over whether lawyers can bounce potential jurors solely based on their sexual orientation. The case before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Wednesday centers on whether Abbott Laboratories broke antitrust laws when it increased the price of its popular and vital AIDS drug Norvir by 400 percent in 2007. But broader public attention likely will be given to the three-judge panel's look at whether Abbott wrongfully removed a juror...