BREAKING: DOMA UNCONSTITUTIONAL

[Bacon King]

Prop 8 case incoming

[Dereich]

DOMA decision was 5-4, with Kennedy writing the opinion. The opinion is here: http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/12-307_g2bh.pdf

[TNF]

[DrScholl]

Some conservatives will feel very betrayed.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

MURICA

[Dereich]

Some conservatives will feel very betrayed.

By who? Kennedy? Roberts, Alito and Scalia wrote dissents, conservatives have nothing to be unhappy about with them.

[Ebowed]

Great news!

[tpfkaw]

Strange tactic by the court conservatives; I'd think that they should've tried for a partial victory by joining with Kennedy to strike it down on federalism grounds and then have the liberals do a concur/dissent.  Of course, that's assuming Kennedy would be willing to go for that.

[DrScholl]

Some conservatives will feel very betrayed.

By who? Kennedy? Roberts, Alito and Scalia wrote dissents, conservatives have nothing to be unhappy about with them.

That doesn't matter, Kennedy is supposed to be one of the more conservative justices.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

No surprise.....about time.

[SUSAN CRUSHBONE]

They made the right decision.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

History has been made!

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I'm more curious about the effects, which will be more clear in a bit.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

I'm more curious about the effects, which will be more clear in a bit.

The first effect will be more amended tax returns than the IRS is prepared to handle.......

[Hash]

Great news, I guess this kind of compensates for yesterday's ruling.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Great news, I guess this kind of compensates for yesterday's ruling.

No.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

So the federal government must now recognizes same sex marriages from states that allow it. Do other states now?

[Blue3]

So the federal government must now recognizes same sex marriages from states that allow it. Do other states now?

While the conclusion says all of DOMA is unconstitutional on equal protection and due process legal grounds, it also says only the federal protections section is at issue here.

This new standard does make it much more likely to legalize gay marriage nationwide, when the appropriate case comes up.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Not surprised. It was long overdue.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

I'm staying off of FB today.....there will be hundreds of news feed items about this and Prop 8.......toooooo much for me.

[afleitch]

We're very pleased. No idea what the effects are yet though.

[memphis]

Do states have to recognize marriages performed in other states now? This is obviously a step in the right direction, but this fight is far from over.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

CNN is interviewing someone from the Family Research Council.  His logic absolutely escapes me.  I want to see some thoughts from these guys who took up residence in front of the Court for the last few days.



Conservative tears always quench my proverbial thirst. 

[Torie]

Love the public policy result, hate the jurisprudence. We are now on the cusp of creating a national gay marriage law by judicial fiat (some Alabama gay couple will be filing a federal lawsuit against Alabama tomorrow as it were demanding state recognition of their marriage citing this case, and most probably win because same sex marriage is now a fundamental right), using the hammer of equal protection, which essentially gives the power to SCOTUS to pass any law at any time if it does not leash itself, because laws by their very essence treat folks differently depending on what category they fit into.

If Kennedy wanted to avoid going where he effectively did as described above, he would have just said that Congress cannot recognize gay marriages legal in a state for some purposes, while denying federal benefits on the other, and essentially demanded that the Feds respect state laws on this when it comes to using the marriage category for handing out benefits, using federalism arguments rather than the equal protection hammer (lousy public policy, but more restrained jurisprudence). Kennedy chose not to do so.

Having said all of that, and essentially wrung my hands, it is indeed hard to image beyond race and gender, just what is out there that is as intimate and fundamental as adult marriage, and the attendant horror show of Balkanized state marriage laws based on gender from a practical standpoint, or a law as execrable as DOMA, so in that sense it is not as if SCOTUS's use of the equal protection hammer was done fecklessly, or will be particularly conducive as a precedent for SCOTUS to expand the scope of what its hammer hits and eviscerates in the future.

[JerryArkansas]

Do states have to recognize marriages performed in other states now? This is obviously a step in the right direction, but this fight is far from over.

No, only part of Doma was overturned.  For that to happen, the entire law will have to be repealed.