On to the Supremes

A whole slew of gay cases have arrived at the Supreme Court and the court has taken a great deal of time (apparently more than usual) deciding which cases it will hear, which it will refuse to hear, and which it will save for another day. We've been waiting since the beginning of the term in October.

The Supremes finally issued orders today.

Several of the cases are about the Defense of Marriage Act. The one chosen was from Edie Windsor, who had to pay a huge (north of $360K) inheritance tax when her wife died. No word yet on what will happen with the other cases.

A part of this case is whether the GOP House is allowed to bring it to the Supremes when the Prez. decided not to.

The second case chosen is the Calif. gay marriage issue. When this came up from the 9th Circuit Court, it was narrowed to refer only to Calif. which had gay marriage before voters took it away. Because of that many Supreme watchers thought the court would not bother, allowing the 9th Circuit to lift its stay and letting marriage in Calif. resume. And allowing the Supremes to avoid the issue.

But the Supremes said they will look at whether Calif. can define marriage to be one man and one woman, not whether Calif. can grant a right then take it away. Interestingly, the Court also said they will look at whether the case should have made it this far. The state of Calif. isn't defending the law, an anti-gay org. is. The Supremes could say the org. isn't being harmed by gay marriage and shouldn't have brought the suit. That means the could sidestep the actual marriage case. Here is a history of the case.

One case not taken (and not yet denied) is from Arizona, which had domestic partner benefits for state employees, then took them away.

Both of these cases have an "opt-out" clause. The Supremes could say the people bringing the case have no standing to do so. Thus the lower court ruling stands. This is likely about strategy. If one side begins to see they may not get five votes they have a way to drop the case and wait for another day.

Arguments for both cases will happen sometime at the end of March with a ruling by the end of June.

There was another complication that appeared in just the last few days. A judge in a district court in Nevada decided that yes, indeedie, Nevada was quite proper in having a gay marriage ban. The judge is Mormon and the ruling came straight out of Fundie beliefs, including a line that if gays married then straights would stop marrying (Rob Tisinai tries to figure out who those people would be). In addition, the judge said he didn't need no stinkin' evidence. Put another way, this one is ripe for overturning.

Someone involved in the Nevada case (I'm not sure on which side) decided to skip the liberal 9th Circuit Court and go straight to the Supremes. There was fear (and perhaps strategy) that yet another case would slow down the process the Supremes use to choose cases, delaying the date of marriage equality. Also, this would give the Supremes a case in which a gay marriage ban is upheld.

Thankfully, the Supremes didn't let that one influence their choice of cases.

In a related post celebrating gay marriage in Maryland, Terrence Heath has some useful pie charts showing what happens when gays are allowed to marry.

The photo at the top of this link now represents gay marriage in Washington state. They've just started issuing licenses and weddings will begin on Sunday. Cute couple.