{"id":17985,"date":"2013-12-20T22:32:36","date_gmt":"2013-12-21T06:32:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=17985"},"modified":"2013-12-20T22:37:11","modified_gmt":"2013-12-21T06:37:11","slug":"utah-has-legal-same-sex-marriage-for-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=17985","title":{"rendered":"Utah Has Legal Same-Sex Marriage (for now)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Well, that <\/em>was unexpected. From Scotusblog<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Directly applying the Supreme Court\u2019s decision striking down the federal Defense of Marriage Act to a state\u2019s ban on same-sex marriage, a federal judge in Salt Lake City ruled Friday that Utah\u2019s voter-approved state constitutional amendment violates the federal Constitution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Constitution protects the choice of one\u2019s partner for all citizens, regardless of their sexual identity,\u201d U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby ruled in a fifty-three-page opinion<\/a>.  He was the second federal judge to nullify a ban imposed by a state\u2019s voters at the ballot box; the first such ruling nullified California\u2019s \u201cProposition 8\u2033 \u2014 a ruling that the Supreme Court left intact in June but without a direct ruling on it.<\/p>\n

If Judge Shelby\u2019s ruling withstands an appeal, it would make Utah the eighteenth state where same-sex marriages are allowed, and the seventh in which equal marriage rights were established by a court ruling.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Utah has already filed an appeal of Shelby’s decision – the case is named Kitchen v. Herbert<\/em>. The Tenth Circuit (covering Utah, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Wyoming) will have a chance to rule, and it’s conceivable they’ll uphold the decision – the Tenth currently has ten judges, split five\/five between Republican and Democratic appointees. However, there are also two vacant seats, which presumably Obama will fill sometime soon, since the filibuster is no longer a barrier.<\/p>\n

If the Tenth Circuit overrules Kitchen<\/em>, then I imagine that will be that. But if the Tenth Circuit upholds Judge Shelby’s Kitchen <\/em>ruling, then this case could wind up in the Supreme Court. My expectation is that the Court would find some way to overturn Kitchen <\/em> rather than legalizing same-sex marriage everywhere in the country. But I’m not 100% sure. Interesting times!<\/p>\n

So what happens if the Supreme Court does <\/em>legalize same-sex marriage across the nation? Well – that’s total victory for the pro-SSM side, as far as I can tell. At that point, the only recourse left for marriage equality’s opponents will be to try for a Federal Constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. And a decade ago, they would probably have been successful. But in today’s environment – where the majority of Americans support legal same-sex marriage – it’s hard to see how a Constitutional amendment could be done.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, Judge Shelby’s decision includes a not-very-subtle middle finger extended to Justice Scalia<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, that was unexpected. From Scotusblog: Directly applying the Supreme Court\u2019s decision striking down the federal Defense of Marriage Act to a state\u2019s ban on same-sex marriage, a federal judge in Salt Lake City ruled Friday that Utah\u2019s voter-approved state constitutional … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[112,111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-same-sex-marriage","category-supreme-court-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17985"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17989,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17985\/revisions\/17989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}