and its "supreme" court.

New: Texas Supreme Court rules gay couples not guaranteed spousal benefits https://www.dallasnews.com/news/lgbt/2017/06/30/texas-supreme-court-rules-gay-couples-notguaranteedspousal-benefits … via @dallasnews #txlege #LGBT

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BREAKING: Texas Supreme Court denies there is a de facto right to govt benefits in same-sex marriage. Appeal certain. #txlege

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I'm Californian. I was talking to my friend last night, and saying that I might put a bumper sticker on my car with the California state flag, with the message "LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT!" I think that those here in California on the right would get my intended message!

there was a time when Democrats won elections there.

Texas also has very low voter turnout at 55% in 2016. If we got our people motivated to vote, things could be better, maybe.

We had plenty of Dixicrats, but I don't consider them to be Democrats.

This state has always been conservative.
It was never "blue".

Carter won Texas in 76

Texas demographics have shifted considerably with a lot of new people moved in to the state.

Turnout among latino voters has been increasing and the younger ones tend to be liberal. Bashing immigrants should hurt the GOP.

Democrats may finally break through in Texas, thanks to Trump
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2017/04/21/democrats-may-finally-break-through-in-texas-thanks-to-trump/?utm_term=.a4f0154e92b2

Texas was going to be a given for him.
At that time Texas was considered to be a more moderate area of the south.


Carter also won almost all of the South: LA, MI, AL, FL, AR, SC, NC, GA, TN, KY, WV and MO. So, it wasn't a Texas thing.

Richards was one term and that was 20 years ago.
Bush and Co created a successful smear campaign against her.

Bentson was probably the last of our long-term statewide Dems.

It has gotten redder with each passing year.
This year's session was the worst I've seen.
It is just awful.

State cut teachers pensions and we haven't had a COLA since 2001, despite an extra $12 billion in the Texas budget. They're eliminating health insurance for retired teachers and what does remain is catastrophic insurance with premiums and deductibles that are more than retirement checks. We don't have social security withheld. We don't have Medicare withheld.

It gets worse and worse around here.

This state is run by a bunch of bigots.

That's from where the legal benefits derive.

Sex - and the old race requirements - would be offensive and most regressive.

Thanks once again, deplorables!

Unanimous decision

How many decades is it going to take to change the composition of this court

Obama's DOJ would have been all over this. The Evil Elf DOJ - no.

... of reviving it? They clearly don't want to be here... why force them to stay?

Texas - with this nonsense
FL - Stand Your Ground
AL - Medicaid only covers those with .25 of FPL
KS - Brownback's totally failed experiment
Me - LePage
In- Bathroom law
etc. etc. etc.

We need to grasp how little power dems have in governing in this country.

The court system is the only thing we've got going for us these days other than Mueller.

a red state or not.

will be reversed on 14th Amendment grounds, a violation of same-sex couples' right to due process and equal protection of the law.

The SCOTUS per curiam striking Arkansas' law refusing to put gay/lesbian married couples names on birth certificates should have made this clear to the Texas Supremes.

we have to drag the knuckle draggers kicking and screaming into the 21st century along with the rest of the nation. Any unbiased jurist would have concluded that any marriage contract that is LEGAL, that the rights guaranteed by law for that contract would be in force. What the Texas Supreme Court just ruled that is some marriage contracts are more equal than others. A three year old would see this as a clear case of discrimination. Now we have to go through years of litigation just to arrive at what the US Supreme Court has already ruled in Obergefell vs Hodges.

Why is the word equal so hard to understand

Along with the Christian Taliban

FUCK every single one of them.

"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."

Get that? No state shall deny to any person...equal protection of the laws.

Texas is saying that a same sex spouse can be denied medical benefits while a non-same sex spouse can be granted medical benefits in state jobs - AT THE SAME TIME!!! ...In the same department, possibly even the same job title?

And the ruling was unanimous? WTF is wrong with conservatives?!

but a marriage is a marriage, isn't it?

How can you say that one marriage is entitled to benefits and another is not?

Because the Democratic party didnt win last year, so to speak, the entire judiciary will become RABID rightwing in a decade.

If we are alive, it will be a VERY unsafe place for anyone not white and xtian.

elect some of these morons. Sadly I think it is because they reflect the majority of this backwards ass state. It has been this way for 20 years and doesn't seem to be getting any better.

I am sick of these bigots.

Also time for Dems in this state to "VOTE"!! Rural shitkickers seem to be running the state.

their children's birth certificates (Pavan et al v. Smith). This appears to be at odds with that. (Arkansas attempted to argue that their decision was consistent with Obergefell, an argument which the court rejected).

"...The Arkansas Supreme Court’s decision, we conclude, denied married same-sex couples access to the “constellation of benefits that the State has linked to marriage.”

....Obergefell proscribes such disparate treatment. As we explained there, a State may not “exclude same-sex couples from civil marriage on the same terms and conditions as opposite-sex couples."....

....The State uses those certificates to give married parents a form of legal recognition that is not available to unmarried parents. Having made that choice, Arkansas may not, consistent with Obergefell, deny married same-sex couples that recognition. "

Per curiam opinion: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/16pdf/16-992_868c.pdf

That is all this is! It is about control and we must fight back.

A case was thrown out last year.

That was appealed. The state Supreme Court denied the appeal.

State politicians put shed to get the appeal reheard. Courts should aim at being judicial and not extensions of partisan politics. But the court buckled and reheard it.


Now the court goes to trial and the lower court rules as it rules. Odds are it will establish the right people think the Supreme Court denied. And the court won't hear any appeal, at least on that score.