In covering these recent judicial decisions holding that it’s unconstitutional to limit marriage to one man and one woman, the mainstream media have erroneously described the findings as “unanimous.” Reporting on the Virginia decision, the Washington Post said that Judge Wright Allen “joined a so-far unanimous group of federal judges considering a question that Supreme Court justices left unanswered in June” — the question of whether state bans on same-sex marriage are constitutional. The characterization of the decisions as “unanimous” is wrong and seems designed to lead voters to conclude that gay marriage is inevitable. In fact, two federal judges, one in Nevada and one in Hawaii, have ruled that traditional-marriage laws do not violate the Constitution. If we’re keeping score on federal-court rulings on the core question about the constitutional legitimacy of same-sex marriage, it’s 3–2 — hardly a “unanimous” legal landscape.http://www.nationalreview.com/article/371380/judge-wright-allens-wrong-brian-s-brown
Federal-court rulings on the core question about the constitutional legitimacy of same-sex marriage, it’s 3–2. Also, Wright Allen's decision can be appealed.
More on the Nevada ruling: http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/federal-judge-rules-the-nevada-can-ban-same-sex-co
More on the Hawaii ruling: http://www.advocate.com/politics/marriage-equality/2012/08/09/federal-judge-upholds-hawaii-marriage-ban
Yep, far from settled. Far from over. Not as cut and dried as Al would have us believe.
Disingenuous from the National Review. The Hawaii decision was a year prior to DOMA's being struck down, so take that out of the score. Note the "since June" in the WaPo story. That's June 2013. The Hawaii decision is from August 2012. The Nevada decision was from November 2012. Take that out of the score. So the score is 3-0 since June 2013. The National Review lied and you swallowed the lie hook, line, and sinker.
ReplyDeleteOf course the rulings can be appealed, and in an earlier post I said one of the current cases will probably make it to the Supreme Court fairly soon. We could have a decision in early 2015.
Al, what these rulings illustrate is that not all federal judges (yet) hold with your rigid view of the Constitution -- they don't all see same-sex marriage as a 14th amendment issue. Of course, many leftist judges do, and they will happily force a leftist agenda off on the country, regardless of the constitutionality of it ... or the detriment to the country and the people it will cause.
ReplyDeleteExcellent piece by the National Review. Truly outstanding. The Nevada case will ultimately prevail, and the June 13 decision is therefore meaningless. Marriage is a State issue. The feds have no business involving themselves either way. Again, superb coverage by NR.
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