Courts & Law

Update on status of same-sex marriage cases

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Hat Tip to Equality on Trial for its case updates:

Pride-Flag-Thumbnail-Friday-3x2-256x171The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in Bostik v. Rainey, the Virginia same-sex marriage case, on Tuesday May 13. Fourth Circuit will allow a full hour of arguments in Virginia same-sex marriage case.

A state court judge in Arkansas is expected to rule on that state’s same-sex marriage ban by May 9. Decision in one challenge to Arkansas same-sex marriage ban is expected by May 9.

The United Church of Christ is challenging North Carolina’s same-sex marriage ban. You can read the complaint here.

A new lawsuit has been filed in Ohio, challenging the state’s marriage equality ban. You can read the complaint here.

Last month, a federal judge struck down Ohio’s ban on recognition of same-sex marriages performed outside the state  as unconstitutional. A stay has been granted, but it doesn’t apply to the named plaintiffs. Those plaintiffs will get their relief: “Ohio shall issue birth certificates for Plaintiffs’ children which list both lawfully married same-sex spouses as parents.” Other same-sex couples who were married outside of Ohio will have to wait on the outcome of the appeal before their marriages are recognized.

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‘With all deliberate speed’: 60th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education on May 17

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The events of recent weeks have made it clear that, despite what Chief Justice John Roberts and the conservative activist Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court would have Americans believe, racism is alive and well in the United States. We are not a color-blind society.

While racism today is rarely expressed in the overt manifestations from our shameful past (KKK cross burnings, lynchings, police brutality), it still manifests itself in numerous more subtle ways no less damaging to the human soul, and is a stain upon our national creed: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal …”

TopekaJournalSaturday, May 17th marks the 60th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, 347 U.S. 483 (May 17, 1954), acknowledged as one of the greatest U.S. Supreme Court decisions of the 20th century. The Court unanimously held that “We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” The Court ordered the desegregation of public schools “with all deliberate speed.”

Although the Brown decision did not succeed in fully desegregating public education in the United States, it did put the Constitution on the side of racial equality and galvanized the nascent civil rights movement into a full revolution which culminated with the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

PBS has an excellent resource guide for students and teachers. 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education resources.

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They’re baaack! The Christian Taliban wants ‘show me your papers before you pee’ at TUSD

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JesusFacepalm2They’re baaack! The Christian Taliban that pushed SB 1062, the religious bigots right to discriminate bill, through the Arizona legislature this year — only to be vetoed by Governor Brewer, and that had Rep. John Kavanagh (R-Fountain Hills) sponsor a strike everything amendment to SB 1045 that failed last year, the “show me your papers before you pee” bill aimed at transgenders, are back at it again.

This time these ignorant, fearful and hateful bigots want to traumatize young children in the TUSD school district who are transgender, as if life hasn’t already dealt them enough issues to deal with at such an early age. These bigots are still crusading with their “show me your papers before you pee” fear mongering. Group urging TUSD to act on transgender issue with restrooms:

The Alliance Defending Freedom, a nonprofit legal organization that advocates for the rights of people to freely practice their religion, sent a letter to Tucson Unified School District on Thursday urging  TUSD to prevent transgender children from using the restroom they identify with, saying such a practice could “severely impair an environment conducive to learning” — a recommendation that TUSD Superintendent H.T. Sanchez and members of the school board are disregarding.

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New York Times: Voter ID is the real fraud

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What I’ve been explaining to you for years! The New York Times editorializes today, Voter ID Is the Real Fraud:

For the first time since the Supreme Court junked a core provision of the Voting Rights Act in June, a federal court has used the strongest surviving part of the act [Section 2] to strike down a state’s voter-identification law, and, in the process, has set out a detailed road map for upcoming challenges to similar laws around the country.

Voting-RightsSupporters of these laws insist they are necessary to prevent fraud at the polls, though such fraud is basically nonexistent. The real point is to deter from the polls significant numbers of Democratic voters, particularly minorities and the poor.

That was the heart of the reasoning by Judge Lynn Adelman of Federal District Court in Milwaukee, who issued an extraordinarily thorough 90-page ruling on Tuesday invalidating Wisconsin’s voter-ID law as a harmful solution in search of an imaginary problem. The law was passed by a Republican-controlled statehouse in 2011 and required that a prospective voter present a government-issued photo ID, like a driver’s license or passport.

“Virtually no voter impersonation occurs in Wisconsin, and it is exceedingly unlikely that voter impersonation will become a problem in Wisconsin in the foreseeable future,” the judge wrote.

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Redistricting – FINALLY, District Court decides Harris in favor of AIRC

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Cross posted from the Arizona Eagletarian

Thirteen months after trial wrapped in the Harris lawsuit — which challenged Arizona’s legislative district map — the three-judge federal District Court panel issued its ruling today. Bottom line, the current legislative district map stands and will not be subject to a do over. However, based on a number of factors, an appeal to the US Supreme Court is inevitable.

Expecting the Dark Money sources and forces to accept defeat before getting the Supreme Court to rule on the matter is, in itself, a silly notion. But given the fact that a number of questions were considered and answered with different judges on the panel deciding different ways (not the same 2-1 majority on all questions), it’s even more reasonable to expect the matter to be kicked up to the nation’s highest court as soon as possible.

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