Courts & Law

The dominoes continue to fall . . . today a U.S. District Court Judge in Wisconsin struck down that state’s same-sex marriage ban as unconstitutional. The Wisconsin State Journal reports, Wisconsin’s same-sex marriage ban struck down:

A federal judge has struck down Wisconsin’s same-sex marriage ban, the latest in a sweeping number of such rulings this year.

“Quite simply, this case is about liberty and equality, the two cornerstones of the rights protected by the United States Constitution,” U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb wrote in her Friday ruling.

Read the Ruling Here (.pdf).

The ruling does not mean that same-sex couples will immediately be able to marry. In her order, Crabb gave the plaintiffs until June 16 to submit a proposed injunction describing “in reasonable detail … the act or acts restrained or required.” She wrote that the plaintiffs should identify what they want each named defendant to do or to be enjoined from doing.

She gave the state a week after that to file a response in opposition, and if they do, the plaintiffs will have a week to reply.

Crabb wrote that she would address the state’s pending motion to stay the injunction until after materials on the proposed injunction are filed. She wrote that both sides could supplement what they’ve already submitted on the motion.

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Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog reports, Court won’t block Oregon same-sex marriages :

The Supreme Court, in a one-sentence order without explanation, refused on Wednesday afternoon (.pdf)  to stop same-sex marriages in Oregon.  The denial was by the full Court, after Justice Anthony M. Kennedy had submitted the plea to it.

The request had come from a private group that is strongly opposed to same-sex marriage, the National Organization for Marriage.  It had been barred from taking part in the case over the constitutionality of an Oregon ban, and it had asked the Justices to put off a judge’s decision striking down that ban.  It has an appeal on file at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and wanted the federal judge’s decision put off until that appeal was decided.

In January, the Court had put on hold a different federal judge’s order striking down Utah’s same-sex marriage ban.  In that case, state officials had sought a delay. Although other federal judges have struck down similar bans elsewhere, in all of those cases the rulings have been put on hold — when that was requested by state officials — while appeals went forward.

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Cathi Herrod and her Christian Taliban at the Center for Arizona Policy (CAP), and her willing accomplices in our lawless Tea-Publican legislature, suffered another defeat today when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Arizona law which restricts the use of abortion-inducing medications Court to continue blocking Ariz. abortion law:

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against an Arizona law that restricted the use of abortion-inducing medications.

Read the opinion Here (.pdf).

Nearly half of all abortions performed in Arizona use the medication, as opposed to surgical abortions. The medication is used during the first nine weeks of pregnancy, while surgical abortions are performed later.

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