U.S. District Court Judge Richard L. Young ruled Wednesday that Indiana’s state law banning same-sex couples from marrying or having their marriages from other states recognized is unconstitutional. Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller filed an emergency motion to stay the ruling pending an appeal, but the ruling took effect immediately and Hoosier couples rushed to marry.
We think it’s time to cue Jim Nabors:
There’s panic in the streets of Salt Lake City! U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby has ruled that a 2004 Utah state constitutional amendment and two state laws banning same-sex marriage violate gay and lesbian couples’ 14th Amendment rights to due process and equal protection under the law. The state measures claimed to be “defense of marriage” provisions, but the state failed to show that same-sex marriages would affect opposite-sex marriages in any manner, according to the judge.
After Judge Shelby ruled, the office of the Salt Lake County Clerk began issuing marriage licences to same-sex couples. Utah’s Attorney General immediately applied for an emergency stay to halt this while he filed an appeal. Utah’s governor and the Mormon Church hope the ruling will be reversed on appeal. The church may be preoccupied with another recent court ruling that decriminalized plural marriage in Utah.
The Senate voted to repeal the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that prohibits openly gay people from serving in the U.S. military. The policy forced 14,000 men and women to leave military service since 1993. 10,000 of these personnel were language specialists, so it’s no wonder that we have no idea what is going on in Iraq or Afghanistan.
“I don’t care who you love. If you love this country enough to risk your life for it, you should be able to serve as you are. Today the Senate has the opportunity to be on the right side of history. ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ is a wrong that should never have been perpetrated.”
— Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Both houses of Congress have passed the measure, and it will now go to the White House for the President’s signature.
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The Washington Post is observing Veterans Day with a story previewing the Pentagon report on the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy:
“More than 70 percent of respondents to a survey sent to active-duty and reserve troops over the summer said the effect of repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy would be positive, mixed or nonexistent, said two sources familiar with the document. The survey results led the report’s authors to conclude that objections to openly gay colleagues would drop once troops were able to live and serve alongside them.”
— “Sources: Pentagon group finds there is minimal risk to lifting gay ban during war,” Ed O’Keefe and Greg Jaffe, Washington Post.
The chief authors of the study are Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson and the Commander of U.S. Forces in Europe, General Carter Ham.
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A motion to debate a defense bill which containing a measure repealing the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy failed in the Senate on Tuesday. Arkansas Democrats Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor joined the Republican filibuster. Several Republicans claim they might eventually vote to end DADT but want to hear the results of a Pentagon review of the policy, due on or about December first, too late to realistically allow for further Senate consideration.
As Igor Volsky points out, 70 percent of Americans favor repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” while the 42 senators stalling the bill represent only 36 percent of the U.S. population.
Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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A federal judge has ruled that a California ban on same-sex marriage violates the due process and equal protection clauses of the U.S. Constitution. “Proposition 8,” the “California Marriage Protection Act,” had restricted marriages in the state to opposite-sex couples.
Excerpts from Judge Vaughn Walker‘s 136-page ruling:
Same-sex marriage becomes legal in the District of Columbia today, March 3rd. Chief Justice John Roberts declined to issue a stay requested by busybodies who don’t even live in the jurisdiction. The DC Court of Appeals refused to stand in the way of love.
The new gender-neutral marriage license application is online. The marriage bureau (Moultrie Courthouse, 500 Indiana Avenue NW, room 4485) opens at 8:30 AM. DC florist shops will open much earlier.
Hat tips: Mike DeBonis, Amanda Hess, GLAA Forum.
Image (“The Wedding Couple, after Abbot Handerson Thayer and Richard E. Miller”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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A bill to permit same-sex couples to marry in the District of Columbia was introduced in the District Council today. Same-sex marriages from other states and countries are currently recognized in the Nation’s Capital.
D.C. Councilman David Catania, one of two openly gay council members, introduced the new legislation. A vote by the 13 member District Council is expected in December.
Image (The Wedding Couple, after Abbott Handerson Thayer and Richard E. Miller) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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“Oh man, if I had run a campaign saying I’d be working closely with Marion Barry, I don’t know that I would have been elected,” Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R, UT-03) told Marc Fisher of the Washington Post. But Mr. Chaffetz is on the House subcommittee that oversees Washington DC, and Marion Barry, former three-term DC Mayor, represents Ward 8 in the District of Columbia Council.
The Council passed a law mandating DC recognition of gay marriages performed in other states and countries, with Mr. Barry casting the lone dissenting vote. Mr. Chaffetz also disapproves of that new DC law and, thanks to historical accident, he gets a chance to overrule the duly-elected local government.
Mr. Chaffetz also says DC doesn’t need a vote in Congress since he will represent Washington’s citizens. Why does the Congressman feel no qualms about making laws for a place where he doesn’t live? Probably because he doesn’t live in the Utah district he represents, either. Under Utah state law it is perfectly legal for Jason Chaffetz to live in Alpine, in Utah’s 2nd Congressional District (served by Democrat Jim Matheson) while representing the 3rd Congressional District.
For the record, Marion Barry actually lives in Ward 8.
Mr. Chaffetz loves to amuse the media by sleeping on top of a flagpole on a cot in his DC office and eating cheap fast food. A canny professional political operative, the Congressman favors Five Guys Burgers and Fries — it’s a DC-area chain but has locations in his Utah district (Bountiful, Midvale, Orem, Sandy, West Valley). What a coincidence!
The District of Columbia Council voted today to recognize same-sex marriages conducted in U.S. states that permit them.
Councilman Marion Barry voted for the measure on the first ballot, against it on the second. Perhaps that puzzling action indicates approval of marriages between bisexuals.
Same-sex marriage is currently legal in Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, and Massachusetts. Four more states (Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey and New York) are expected to permit same-sex marriages within the next year. Several more states recognize cetain legal aspects of same-sex unions.
Image (The Wedding Couple, after Abbott Handerson Thayer and Richard E. Miller) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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