As I predicted in a post in December of last year, the Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8 were bent over at the waist and sodomized with a telephone pole by the United States Supreme Court this morning. Separate rulings with separate results, one better than I had expected.
The Prop 8 ruling was a no-brainer that anyone could see coming a mile away. Imagine if you filed suit against a big corporation and lost. Then I decided I didn't like the ruling, so I got a bunch of money together and pursued your appeal --- against your wishes, and without you as a litigant. Ridiculous, right? That's what a group of motivated bigots did in the Prop 8 case. The Supreme Court said, "Are you kidding?" and sent the case back to California with instructions to toss it the fuck out. As it should be.
So on a state level, there wasn't a ruling directly affecting the status of same-sex marriage; the Court just said that the case --- which overturned Prop 8 on constitutional grounds --- could not be appealed by anyone but the original litigants. Which still leaves open the possibility that any state, including California, can pass laws prohibiting same-sex marriage. 37 states have such laws on the books today. Or should I say, for now...
I never thought Justice Kennedy would side with the liberal bloc on the issue, but sure enough there he was writing the majority opinion as the Court struck down most of the major provisions in DOMA, on the merits! I had predicted that the case be remanded on lack of standing, but this was even better. DOMA is no more, it was ruled to be a clear violation of the Equal Protection clause.
Now pay attention. In its ruling, the Court made reference to a 1967 case called Loving v. Virginia. This wasn't a direct citation to support its legal argument; it was just mentioned in discussing the circumstances surrounding the case. Loving v. Virginia is the case in which the Supreme Court single-handedly wiped out state statutes making interracial marriage illegal. One ruling, and interracial marriage was made legal in every state where it was previously illegal.
Starting to see where this is going?
The Court, in just kind of casually dropping that reference into a case that really had nothing to do with it, is giving a pretty clear signal: if you challenge a state same-sex marriage law on the merits and it makes it to our doorstep, we're striking it down. Laws prohibiting interracial marriage violate the 14th Amendment, and so do laws prohibiting same-sex marriage.
So whether it's Massachusetts (1st state to legalize it), or Minnesota (most recent), or California (because of today's ruling), your marriage entitles you to the same federal benefits as any other married couple.
And more importantly, if you're bold enough to challenge your state's laws against same-sex marriage in court, you have 5 friends sitting in a beautiful building in Washington D.C. that will be happy to rule in your favor should it get that far.
To the bigots: it's over, you lost. Man, did you lose. When it comes to ignoring the social and political evolution of this nation, you're Tanya Harding. Time to go do a women's boxing PPV event, and retire to a trailer park where you belong.
