Happily, some enlightened county judges ignored Alabama's chief justice, Roy Moore, and his directive for the county judges to not issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the SC refused to hear the lower courts appeals. Roy Moore and his ilk will not go down without a fight (e.g. 50 of the counties in Alabama that sadly did not grant marriage licenses), but he's on the losing end, and good riddance once he that spectacle are gone.
An interesting side note that came from the day was the dissent from the SC justices Thomas and Scalia. Thomas is quoted here: " “The court looks the other way as yet another federal district judge casts aside state laws without making any effort to preserve the status quo pending the court’s resolution of a constitutional question it left open in United States v. Windsor,” he wrote, referring to the 2013 decision striking down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. “This acquiescence,” Justice Thomas added in a telling passage, “may well be seen as a signal of the court’s intended resolution of that question.” " I'm not going to divine the tea leaves here, but if you have a conservative SC justice stating the cow's out of the barn even before they hear the case this spring--it's pretty good news for us!
Some of the images today of couples marrying are really wonderful. This is one of my favorite quotes from today: "”At the end of the day, it’s still a very simple legal analysis: You’ve got a federal court order,” Judge King said as he watched the couples line up, near a white ribbon and red balloons. He added: “This is a happy day for all of these couples, and if you can’t be happy for people, then I’m sorry. If someone can’t understand the joy and happiness of others, then I don’t know what else I can say.”".
Perfect. :)
Link to Thomas quote: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/10/us/justice-thom … riage.html
Link to King quote: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/10/us/alabama-supr … =top-news#
Marriage in Alabama
*For more details see WEST VIRGINIA.
Alabama (or at least parts of it) becomes state 37. Yeah, idiot Moore bluffed most of the counties into not issuing same-sex marriage licenses, but that won't stand for long.
The more important stuff was what was going on in Washington:
The Supreme Court refused to grant Alabama a stay, and as you noted, Justice Thomas, joined by Scalia, wrote a blistering dissent criticizing the majority for essentially deciding the marriage issue before hearing the 6th Circuit cases. Obviously, I don't agree with Thomas on gay rights, but I do think he has a point here. The Supreme Court has handled the marriage issue very poorly. They weren't brave enough to just tackle the issue head on by taking a case back in September, when all this started. I certainly hope this kind of thing doesn't happen on future issues/cases, as it sets an extremely poor example.
I also agree with Thomas that the issue has in effect been decided. The court has taken the country too far down the road to back off now. To change course and say states can restrict same-sex marriage would be disastrously cruel, and I just can't imagine that happening.
Another interesting tidbit is the fact that only Thomas and Scalia joined the somewhat unusual dissent. No Alito and no Roberts. It has long been assumed that the vote on the marriage case will be 5-4, but I don't think so. I think it will be at least 6-3, and maybe even 7-2. This is a case that will weigh heavily in the history of the Roberts Court, and he isn't going to want to be on the wrong side of history, which is where the anti-marriage forces will be viewed when people look back on these times. Roberts will likely join the majority, as he did on Obamacare, and it wouldn't surprise me if he even wrote the majority opinion. Although he may not be the ideal choice, I don't really think there's any way that a marriage ruling of this magnitude can be written narrowly.
http://news.yahoo.com/justice-thomas-court-signal … itics.html