Thanks for posting.

Thanks much!

I have to say I was quite surprised the USSC didn't take the case knowing the neocon makeup of the majority of the court. I was thrilled with today's news!

I was surprised by the reaction I had gotten in a thread about "When will the Supreme Court take this up?" a while back, as my question was "Why would you want them to?"

Last edited Mon Oct 6, 2014, 02:04 PM - Edit history (1)

- a/k/a Posner's H-Bomb - will be appealed by WI and IN. That decision was too recent to have been appealed to the SCOTUS already.

ETA - it was appealed - apparently an expedited appeal.

This will lead directly to every state being required to recognize marriages from other states. By not accepting these cases, the SCOTUS has basically said that marriage equality is legal and constitutional, based on the circuit appeals courts' decisions. There is not effective argument possible to allow states not to recognize those legal, constitutional marriages.

That's the next step, and it will come soon, I believe.

The tipping point has been reached.

You write, "By not accepting these cases, the SCOTUS has basically said that marriage equality is legal and constitutional...." It's a well-established general principle that the Supreme Court's refusal to take a case does not establish a precedent and does not constitute a ruling that the lower court decision was correct. The reason is that disgruntled litigants want the Court to hear many more cases than it can hear, and it has to be very picky.

Of course, when you have an issue of obvious public importance, on which several circuit courts have ruled, the common sense of the situation is that the Court would probably have taken the case if there had been a live chance that it would reverse. Regardless of what the books say about the denial of a certiorari petition, therefore, the betting odds would heavily favor the conclusion that the Court (at least as currently composed) is not going to reverse the circuits that have ruled in favor of marriage equality.

The bigots may be holding out hope that President Cruz will appoint a conservative Justice to replace Breyer or Ginsburg, and there'll be a contrary ruling in 2018 or so. There are, of course, several flaws in that scenario. Furthermore, even in that very unlikely worst case, it would still be up to the states, and the trend is definitely toward equality.

Once all those states selected have it, that's 30, the majority. And a good many of them got it very recently in the last year or 2.

Utah is a pleasant surprise.

We take weddings SO seriously here....

Where gay marriage is not allowed, but I can get blind drunk at a strip club, stagger across the street with an equally drunk girl I just met and be married by an Elvis impersonator within a matter of minutes.

I always use this example whenever I hear anyone use the term "sanctity of marriage".

You wake up next morning and realize you're married to Britney Spears.

TlalocW

I thought that it would be in its usual competition witn Mississippi to be the last to implement any progressive reforms. The tills are going to be ringing at the gun stores tonight.

It's an accident of where the federal judicial circuits' borders are drawn. South Carolina is in the Fourth Circuit, where the federal appellate court ruled in favor of marriage equality. Most of the South is in the Fifth or Eleventh Circuit, neither of which has ruled on such an appeal.

The Fourth Circuit's ruling is binding on lower federal courts within that circuit -- Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. It's not binding on courts elsewhere, though. There's probably a pending challenge to Mississippi's law (if there isn't, there soon will be), but it will have to make its way through the system. The Fifth Circuit (Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi) will probably rule the same way, so Mississippi will have to fall into line in the near future.

I lived there for 6 years, I think I know the state well enough not to imagine that this was in any way voluntary. It's still unusual, though.

According to this compilation of poll results, South Carolina isn't even in the top ten when it comes to opposition. On same-sex marriage, South Carolina showed 38.5% support, 52.2% opposition, making it eleventh from the bottom in support. Mississippi was a few notches below it at 36%-55%. Coming in last, to my surprise, was West Virginia, at 23%-70%.

Not surprisingly, the state where support is strongest is the one with the most experience in marriage equality. In Massachusetts (77%-15%), people have had several years to see that, amazingly enough, letting same-sex lovers get married doesn't imperil opposite-sex marriages or otherwise bring about the downfall of civilization.

but of all the states in the "likely" category, you'll see more heads exploding in SC than anywhere else. The folks who are OK with equal marriage are likely those who have migrated from the Northeast, and they live in retirement areas like those near Myrtle Beach. Out in the hinterlands, however...

It would be funny if it weren't so sad.

....huh.... whoda guessed it?

As many of you know, I work for a newspaper. (And for those who didn't before: Hi, I work for a newspaper.) This is in the October 8 edition:

http://cdapress.com/news/local_news/article_46b1f354-ad0f-53aa-949a-b8a6a5bab503.html

The 9th Circuit has struck down marriage bans in Nevada and Idaho. The reaction in the states can't be more different.

In Idaho, whose government is packed to the gills with Repukes, there's plenty of hemming and hawing.

Nevada? There the state kinda sorta figured the Ninth would kill off their marriage ban, so they ordered all-new marriage license forms with all the gender language stripped out. The Ordained Elvises are writing same-sex ceremonies, and the wedding photographers are hiring models to practice shooting wedding ceremonies with two white dresses in them. It is every gay person's right to have a tacky wedding if he or she wants one, and Nevada is gearing up for them.