Salon.com > SCOTUS http://www.salon.com Tue, 02 Jul 2013 23:22:02 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 GOP rules SCOTUS http://www.salon.com/2013/07/02/gop_runs_scotus_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/07/02/gop_runs_scotus_partner/#comments Tue, 02 Jul 2013 18:26:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13357775 In order to fully understand what the five Republican appointees on the Supreme Court have been up to when they make decisions that affect our democracy, as they did last week on voting rights, you need to understand what the Republican Party has been up to.

The modern GOP is based on an unlikely coalition of wealthy business executives, small business owners, and struggling whites. Its durability depends on the latter two categories believing that the economic stresses they’ve experienced for decades have a lot to do with the government taking their money and giving it to the poor, who are disproportionately black and Latino.

The real reason small business owners and struggling whites haven’t done better is the same most of the rest of America hasn’t done better: Although the output of Americans has continued to rise, almost all the gains have gone to the very top.

Government is implicated, but not in the way wealthy Republicans want the other members of their coalition to believe. Laws that the GOP itself championed (too often with the complicity of some Democrats) have trammeled unions, invited outsourcing abroad, slashed taxes on the rich, encouraged takeovers, allowed monopolization, reduced the real median wage, and deregulated Wall Street.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/07/02/gop_runs_scotus_partner/feed/ 4 Bizarre gay pride photobomb makes it to front page of local paper http://www.salon.com/2013/07/02/bizarre_gay_pride_photobomb_makes_it_to_front_page_of_local_paper/ http://www.salon.com/2013/07/02/bizarre_gay_pride_photobomb_makes_it_to_front_page_of_local_paper/#comments Tue, 02 Jul 2013 17:02:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13349680 Gay pride revelers around the country had two major Supreme Court victories to add a little extra oomph to their weekend festivities, with many people coming out to local events with signs celebrating the death of the Defense of Marriage Act and the reversal of California's Proposition 8.

Delaware's News Journal captured one such moment, when, on Monday, state Sen. Karen Peterson and Vikki Bandy became the first same-sex couple to be married in Delaware.

Except the photo features one apparent interloper.

Among a group of people holding poster boards donned with messages like "I love my 2 moms," stands a smiling man holding a pink sign declaring "I'm here for the gang bang."

It's hard to say what motivated the photobomb. Was the sign-holder part of the small anti-gay rights contingent protesting outside of the courthouse? Did he use Apple Maps to get directions to a group sex rally and simply wind up in the wrong place? Is he a clueless young guy trying to insert petty homophobia into an otherwise happy event?

Significantly, no one in the photo seems to much notice him or care that he's there. They're too busy celebrating to be bothered by one man's stupidity.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/07/02/bizarre_gay_pride_photobomb_makes_it_to_front_page_of_local_paper/feed/ 62 Prop 8 backers ask SCOTUS to halt California marriages http://www.salon.com/2013/06/30/prop_8_backers_ask_scotus_to_halt_california_marriages/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/30/prop_8_backers_ask_scotus_to_halt_california_marriages/#comments Sun, 30 Jun 2013 14:20:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13346541 The supporters of Proposition 8 have filed a last-ditch petition with the Supreme Court to block same-sex marriage in California, after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted its stay on gay marriages, the last barrier for gay couples in the state.

Reuters reports:

In their application asking the Supreme Court to overrule the 9th Circuit and reinstate the gay marriage ban, opponents argued the appeals court had jumped the gun in lifting its stay.

The Arizona-based group Alliance Defending Freedom argued that the 9th Circuit lacked authority to act when it did, and that it violated the terms of its own stay requiring the ruling remain in place "until final disposition by the Supreme Court."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/30/prop_8_backers_ask_scotus_to_halt_california_marriages/feed/ 5 SCOTUS: No right to remain silent unless you speak up http://www.salon.com/2013/06/30/scotus_no_right_to_remain_silence_unless_you_speak_up_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/30/scotus_no_right_to_remain_silence_unless_you_speak_up_partner/#comments Sun, 30 Jun 2013 12:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13340871 International Business Times If you want to invoke your constitutional right to remain silent, you’d better not be silent.

That’s the circular logic of a recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, which held that simply remaining silent is not enough to protect American citizens from self-incrimination. Though it’s received scant media attention, the decision has serious implications for criminal prosecutions, legal experts say. It came on June 17 in Salinas v. Texas, which concerned the nature of police questioning in a 20-year-old murder investigation that led to the conviction of a Houston man.

In January 1993, Genovevo Salinas was brought in for police questioning about the murder of two brothers. Police found shotgun shell casings at the scene, and Salinas -- who was not arrested and not read his Miranda rights -- agreed to let police inspect his shotgun. When police asked if the shells would match his shotgun, Salinas did not answer the question. He stayed silent, looked down at the floor, shuffled his feet and bit his bottom lip.

Salinas was later arrested on an unrelated traffic warrant, at which time police decided there was enough evidence to charge him with the murders. Salinas did not testify at the trial, but his reaction to police questioning -- the fidgeting, lip-biting, etc. -- was used as evidence. In other words, Salinas’ silence was used against him, a violation of his Fifth Amendment rights, or so he thought.

Salinas was convicted and received a 20-year sentence. On direct appeal, he argued to the Court of Appeals of Texas that the prosecutors’ use of his silence as part of their case was unconstitutional, but the court rejected that argument. The case eventually made its way to the Supreme Court, where in a 5-4 decision last week, the court found that Salinas’ self-incrimination privilege had not been violated, mainly because he never flat-out said, “I’m invoking my right to remain silent.” This despite the fact that Salinas was not under arrest at the time of questioning, and was therefore not read his Miranda rights.

From the plurality opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito:

“Petitioner [Salinas] cannot benefit from that principle because it is undisputed that his interview with police was voluntary. As petitioner himself acknowledges, he agreed to accompany the officers to the station and ‘was free to leave at any time during the interview.’ Brief for Petitioner 2 - 3 (internal quotation marks omitted). That places petitioner’s situation outside the scope of Miranda and other cases in which we have held that various forms of governmental coercion prevented defendants from voluntarily invoking the privilege.”

The Supreme Court had previously held that mere silence is not sufficient for a suspect to invoke his or her Fifth Amendment rights. The difference here is that Salinas was not a suspect at the time he went silent; he was merely a witness brought in for questioning.

Alito was joined in his opinion by Justice Anthony Kennedy and Chief Justice Roberts. While the ruling has been overshadowed by this week's Supreme Court’s decisions on affirmative action, the Voting Rights Act, the Defense of Marriage Act and Prop 8, it’s received its share of criticism in both journalistic and legal circles.

Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of First Amendment law at the University of California, Irvine School of Law,wrote on the ABA Journal Tuesday that criminal defense lawyers will now have to take extra care, advising their clients to explicitly speak up if they wish to remain silent. He added that the new ruling is also likely to cause unnecessary confusion.

“Constitutional protections should not be just for those who have legal training and know what they need to say to the police to invoke their rights,” Chemerinsky wrote. “From a common sense perspective, Salinas was penalized for exercising his constitutional right to remain silent in the face of police questioning. This should not be tolerated under the Fifth Amendment.”

Read the full syllabus for Salinas v Texas here.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/30/scotus_no_right_to_remain_silence_unless_you_speak_up_partner/feed/ 17 Lady Gaga returns to public eye to celebrate gay pride http://www.salon.com/2013/06/29/lady_gaga_returns_to_public_eye_with_speech_for_lgbt_rights/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/29/lady_gaga_returns_to_public_eye_with_speech_for_lgbt_rights/#comments Sat, 29 Jun 2013 14:29:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13346163 Stepping into the public eye for the first time in months after her hip surgery, on Friday night pop star Lady Gaga delivered a speech at New York's Gay Pride kick-off rally. Gaga, a longtime LGBT icon and activist, paid tribute to the LGBT community celebrating the Supreme Court's historic ruling in favor of marriage equality earlier this week.

"As my LGBT fans and friends always said to me, 'I knew Laday Gaga when,'" Gaga said. "Well, look who the star is now. Now I get to say that I knew you when. Now I get to say that I knew you when you suffered, when you felt unequal, when you felt there was nothing to look forward to."

Waving a rainbow flag, Gaga then sand the national anthem:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/29/lady_gaga_returns_to_public_eye_with_speech_for_lgbt_rights/feed/ 1 Gay marriage is back in California http://www.salon.com/2013/06/29/gay_marriage_is_back_in_california_ap/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/29/gay_marriage_is_back_in_california_ap/#comments Sat, 29 Jun 2013 12:55:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13346133 SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Same-sex marriages that were outlawed in California 4 1/2 years ago resumed in a rush after a federal appeals court took the "unusual, but not unprecedented," step of freeing couples to obtain marriage licenses, before the U.S. Supreme Court had issued its final judgment in a challenge of the state's voter-approved gay marriage ban.

Within hours of the appeals court's action Friday, the four plaintiffs who in 2009 sued to overturn the ban had exchanged vows during hastily arranged ceremonies that drew crowds of well-wishers as the news spread that the weddings were back on.

"I was at work," lead plaintiff Kristen Perry said, adding that she rushed home to Berkeley to change into a gray suit so she could marry her now-wife Sandra Stier at San Francisco City Hall.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris declared Perry and Stier "spouses for life" as hundreds of supporters looked on and cheered from the balconies ringing the couple's perch under City Hall's rotunda. The other couple in the Supreme Court case, Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo, was married at Los Angeles City Hall 90 minutes later wearing matching white rose boutonnières and with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa presiding.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/29/gay_marriage_is_back_in_california_ap/feed/ 3 “World War G”: The gay marriage apocalypse is here http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/world_war_g_the_gay_marriage_apocalypse_is_here/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/world_war_g_the_gay_marriage_apocalypse_is_here/#comments Thu, 27 Jun 2013 20:20:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13339174 A Funny or Die sketch, probably in partnership with Rick Santorum's Christian film company, presents "World War G," a parody of Brad Pitt's zombie apocalypse movie in which a lone crusader fights against the proliferation of homosexuals as a result of the SCOTUS ruling against DOMA.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/world_war_g_the_gay_marriage_apocalypse_is_here/feed/ 3 From Stonewall to the death of DOMA: A look back at gay rights in the U.S. http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/from_stonewall_to_the_death_of_doma_a_look_back_at_gay_rights_in_the_u_s/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/from_stonewall_to_the_death_of_doma_a_look_back_at_gay_rights_in_the_u_s/#comments Thu, 27 Jun 2013 13:14:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13338705 WASHINGTON (AP) — From Stonewall in New York in 1969 to the marble walls of the Supreme Court, the push to advance gay rights has moved forward, often glacially but recently at a quickening pace. A look at episodes in the modern history of that movement and how attitudes have changed along the way in the larger culture:

FLASH BACK

Fifty years ago, gay sex was a crime in almost every state, homosexuality was designated a mental disorder, federal workers could easily lose their jobs for being gay and only the outliers were out of the closet, a risky if not dangerous place to be.

FLASH FORWARD

Gay marriage is legal in a dozen states and the District of Columbia, and could soon be again in California after the court's ruling Wednesday.

Gays can serve openly in the armed forces and do so in high office, including Congress. Eight people who have served as a U.S. ambassador or been nominated for that post are openly gay. Openly gay entertainers are commonplace, athletes less so.

It can still be dangerous to be out of the closet, which is why Congress expanded federal hate-crimes legislation in 2009 to cover crimes motivated by bias against gays, lesbians and transgender people. The law is named after Matthew Shepard, a gay college student tied to a fence, beaten and left to die in a 1998 case that sparked hate-crimes laws around the country.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/from_stonewall_to_the_death_of_doma_a_look_back_at_gay_rights_in_the_u_s/feed/ 0 Must-see morning clip: Stephen Colbert’s advice for straight married couples http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/must_see_morning_clip_stephen_colberts_advice_for_straight_married_couples/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/must_see_morning_clip_stephen_colberts_advice_for_straight_married_couples/#comments Thu, 27 Jun 2013 13:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13338698 Stephen Colbert feigned outrage over the Supreme Court's ruling that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional on "The Colbert Report" last night. "It was passed in 1996 to guarantee that traditional marriage was between one man and one woman for the sacred purpose of getting Bill Clinton reelected," he said.

Colbert's advice for those who feel that the institution of marriage is now threatened: "Traditional marriage is as defenseless as a freshman frat pledge about to go through the spanking machine. So straight people listen up: If a gay charges your marriage, you're gonna want to puff yourself up -- make yourself seem bigger -- try to frighten 'it' off by talking in a firm loud voice about pleated denim or Jimmy Buffett."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/must_see_morning_clip_stephen_colberts_advice_for_straight_married_couples/feed/ 0 San Francisco braces for massive celebrations http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/san_francisco_braces_for_massive_celebrations_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/san_francisco_braces_for_massive_celebrations_partner/#comments Wed, 26 Jun 2013 21:27:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13338218 The American Independent SAN FRANCISCO – The city where the battle for marriage equality in California began in 2004 is bracing for massive celebrations in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s rulings involving same-sex marriage on Wednesday.

In  a 5-4 decision in Windsor v. United States, the court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, the majority ruling that  Section 3 of the 1996 law — which denied federal recognition and benefits to same-sex couples married under state law — is unconstitutional.

In a subsequent 5-4 decision, the court dismissed the second same-sex-marriage case, Hollingsworth v. Perry – dealing with whether or not marriage rights can be removed by a vote of the people. The majority argued the coalition of anti-marriage-equality advocates did not have standing to appeal a broad trial court decision from 2010, which found that California’s Proposition 8 was unconstitutional.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/san_francisco_braces_for_massive_celebrations_partner/feed/ 2 SCOTUS Voting Rights Act ruling may cost Wendy Davis her Senate seat http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/scotus_voting_rights_act_ruling_may_cost_wendy_davis_her_senate_seat/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/scotus_voting_rights_act_ruling_may_cost_wendy_davis_her_senate_seat/#comments Wed, 26 Jun 2013 19:07:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13337962 Just as Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, rose to national prominence with a Tuesday filibuster to defeat a highly restrictive antiabortion omnibus bill, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated a key provision of the Voting Rights Act that helped her secure her seat in the Legislature.

As reported by Zachary Roth at MSNBC, Davis was one of many candidates -- and tens of thousands of Texas voters -- impacted by Republican redistricting efforts in 2011:

The GOP plan radically changed the demographic makeup of Davis’ district, among others, moving tens of thousands of black and Hispanic voters into neighboring districts. In fact, of the 94 precincts that were over 70% minority, Republicans cut out 48. In the new map, blacks and Hispanics were placed in separate districts from each other and were outnumbered by the white conservative majority, which tends to vote Republican.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/scotus_voting_rights_act_ruling_may_cost_wendy_davis_her_senate_seat/feed/ 85 America rejoices over gay marriage win http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/america_rejoices_gay_marriage_win/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/america_rejoices_gay_marriage_win/#comments Wed, 26 Jun 2013 16:15:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13337464 San Francisco's City Hall is lit up with gay pride. The crowd outside the Supreme Court chants "DOMA is dead!" Storefronts across the nation are decorated with messages of marriage equality.

This morning, Americans are celebrating the SCOTUS ruling against the Defense of Marriage Act, a huge win for marriage equality.

[slide_show id=13337443]

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/america_rejoices_gay_marriage_win/feed/ 10 Twitter is feeling really, really good about the DOMA and Prop 8 rulings http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/twitter_is_feeling_really_really_good_about_the_doma_and_prop_8_rulings/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/twitter_is_feeling_really_really_good_about_the_doma_and_prop_8_rulings/#comments Wed, 26 Jun 2013 15:19:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13337412 The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional, extending more than 1,000 federal benefits to gay married couples, paving the way to treat gay bi-national couples equally under immigration law and clearing a path for a host of other victories for same-sex couples in the United States.

The news made Twitter users feel pretty, pretty good.

A roundup:

[embedtweet id="349894675253051393"]

[embedtweet id="349890477002199041"]

[embedtweet id="349904591564972032"]

[embedtweet id="349896232514228226"]

[embedtweet id="349898590715514880"]

[embedtweet id="349893700446457856"]

[embedtweet id="349892735228067840"]

[embedtweet id="349900976964112384"]

[embedtweet id="349901791997067265"]

[embedtweet id="349900254566555651"]

 

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/twitter_is_feeling_really_really_good_about_the_doma_and_prop_8_rulings/feed/ 0 Google celebrates gay rights http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/google_celebrates_gay_rights_win/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/google_celebrates_gay_rights_win/#comments Wed, 26 Jun 2013 14:53:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13337413 Google gets behind gay rights with a fun easter egg. Search "gay," "gay rights," and related terms like "LBGT," "gay marriage," "homosexuality" and "domestic partnership," and you'll see the Google search bar light up with gay pride.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/google_celebrates_gay_rights_win/feed/ 3 Must-see morning clip: SCOTUS strikes down key section in Voting Rights Act http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/must_see_morning_clip_scotus_strikes_down_key_section_in_voting_rights_act/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/must_see_morning_clip_scotus_strikes_down_key_section_in_voting_rights_act/#comments Wed, 26 Jun 2013 13:30:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13337351 Chief Justice John Roberts defended the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Section 4 of the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965, explaining on Tuesday that "Nearly 50 years later, things have changed dramatically" in the states that comprised the Jim Crow south.

"Yes, for some reason, since the Voting Rights Act was passed, things have changed dramatically!" said Colbert. "Therefore, we can get rid of it now. It's like those outdated labor laws that prohibit children from threading bobbins and a loom. A kid hasn't been sucked into one of those machines in years!" he joked.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/must_see_morning_clip_scotus_strikes_down_key_section_in_voting_rights_act/feed/ 2 SCOTUS to rule on gay marriage Wednesday http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/scotus_to_rule_on_gay_marriage_wednesday_ap/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/scotus_to_rule_on_gay_marriage_wednesday_ap/#comments Wed, 26 Jun 2013 11:54:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13337259 WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is meeting to deliver opinions in two cases that could dramatically alter the rights of gay people across the United States.

The justices are expected to decide their first-ever cases about gay marriage Wednesday in their last session before the court's summer break.

The issues before the court are California's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which denies legally married gay Americans a range of tax, health and pension benefits otherwise available to married couples.

The broadest possible ruling would give gay Americans the same constitutional right to marry as heterosexuals. But several narrower paths also are available, including technical legal outcomes in which the court could end up saying very little about same-sex marriage.

If the court overturns California's Proposition 8 or allows lower court rulings that struck down the ban to stand, it will take about a month for same-sex weddings to resume for the first time since 2008, San Francisco officials have said.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/scotus_to_rule_on_gay_marriage_wednesday_ap/feed/ 1 The ugly SCOTUS voting rights flim-flam http://www.salon.com/2013/06/25/the_ugly_scotus_voting_rights_flim_flam/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/25/the_ugly_scotus_voting_rights_flim_flam/#comments Tue, 25 Jun 2013 20:07:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13336689 No good deed goes unpunished, I like to say. In striking down a key enforcement provision of the Voting Rights Act, Chief Justice John Roberts noted that African-American voter turnout in 2012 either exceeded or essentially matched white turnout in five of six Southern states governed by the act’s tough and controversial Section 5.

Ironically, as anyone paying attention knows, that turnout surge was driven by anger over a wave of GOP efforts to suppress black votes in those and other states – and it was helped along by Section 5, which requires states with a history of voting rights suppression to pre-clear any voting changes with the Justice Department (Justice struck down 21 such proposals since 2006). Still, despite new voter identification laws, restrictions on early voting and Sunday voting and other barriers, African-Americans voted at unprecedented rates in 2012 – and that helped give Roberts an excuse to strike down a section key to enforcing the law.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/25/the_ugly_scotus_voting_rights_flim_flam/feed/ 157 Justice Alito mocks female justices on the bench http://www.salon.com/2013/06/25/justice_alito_mocks_female_justices_while_on_the_bench/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/25/justice_alito_mocks_female_justices_while_on_the_bench/#comments Tue, 25 Jun 2013 16:50:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13336341 Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is being widely criticized for his behavior on Monday while Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg read the dissenting opinion on an employment harassment case; the associate justice is widely reported to have rolled his eyes and shook his head "no" while Ginsburg -- the second woman to serve on the high court and possessing more than a decade of experience on the bench -- noted that the majority ruling on Vance v. Ball State University would leave women vulnerable to workplace harassment without legal recourse.

Garrett Epps at the Atlantic noted Alito's judicial rudeness on Monday, and Dana Milbank from the Washington Post published a laundry list of the justice's high school antics in a Tuesday editorial.

Apparently, it's not the first time Alito has visibly expressed disdain for his female colleagues:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/25/justice_alito_mocks_female_justices_while_on_the_bench/feed/ 224 Anti-gay group accidentally releases DOMA and Proposition 8 statements before SCOTUS ruling http://www.salon.com/2013/06/25/anti_gay_group_accidentally_releases_doma_and_prop_8_statements_before_scotus_ruling/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/25/anti_gay_group_accidentally_releases_doma_and_prop_8_statements_before_scotus_ruling/#comments Tue, 25 Jun 2013 16:45:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13336413 The United States Supreme Court is slated to announce decisions on the Defense of Marriage Act and California's Proposition 8 on Thursday, and the Family Policy Institute of Washington, a D.C.-based anti-gay rights group, has statements prepared to address all possible outcomes.

There's nothing unusual about preparing press statements in advance. What is strange, however, is releasing them all at once -- before the high court announces its rulings.

Naturally, that's exactly what the institute did.

After breaking possible outcomes into the categories of "win-win," "partial win" and "lose-lose," the group went ahead and published all of them at once.

Here's what the group's director Joseph Backholm thinks of as a "win-win" scenario ("SCOTUS upholds natural marriage"):

…“I applaud the United States Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the constitutionality of the.  They were correct to rule that the U.S. Constitution does not include a “right” of same-sex couples to have their relationships officially affirmed as “marriages.”  We agree that the public’s interest in promoting responsible procreation provides a rational basis for defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.  The Court did the right thing by permitting the debate over the definition of marriage to continue through the democratic process.”

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/25/anti_gay_group_accidentally_releases_doma_and_prop_8_statements_before_scotus_ruling/feed/ 0 SCOTUS guts Voting Rights Act http://www.salon.com/2013/06/25/scotus_guts_voting_rights_act_ap/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/25/scotus_guts_voting_rights_act_ap/#comments Tue, 25 Jun 2013 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13336742 WASHINGTON (AP) — A deeply divided Supreme Court threw out the most powerful part of the landmark Voting Rights Act on Tuesday, a decision deplored by the White House but cheered by mostly Southern states now free from nearly 50 years of intense federal oversight of their elections.

Split along ideological and partisan lines, the justices voted 5-4 to strip the government of its most potent tool to stop voting bias — the requirement in the Voting Rights Act that all or parts of 15 states with a history of discrimination in voting, mainly in the South, get Washington's approval before changing the way they hold elections.

Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for a majority of conservative, Republican-appointed justices, said the law's provision that determines which states are covered is unconstitutional because it relies on 40-year-old data and does not account for racial progress and other changes in U.S. society.

The decision effectively puts an end to the advance approval requirement that has been used to open up polling places to minority voters in the nearly half century since it was first enacted in 1965, unless Congress can come up with a new formula that Roberts said meets "current conditions" in the United States. That seems unlikely to happen any time soon.

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