Federal judge declares Idaho's gay marriage ban unconstitutional

[rsmith6621]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/13/justice/idaho-gay-marriage/index.html

(CNN) -- Idaho became the latest state Tuesday in which a federal judge declared its ban on gay marriage to be unconstitutional, delivering yet another victory for same-sex proponents -- albeit not necessarily a definitive one.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy Wagahoff Dale issued her sweeping opinion knocking down Idaho state laws and a state constitutional amendment, passed in 2006, as failing to live up to the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment guarantee no "state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

"Idaho's marriage laws deny its gay and lesbian citizens the fundamental right to marry and relegate their families to a stigmatized, second-class status without sufficient reason for doing so," Dale wrote. "These laws do not withstand any applicable level of constitutional scrutiny."

The judge's order takes effect at 9 a.m. Friday.

[elleng]

1. Decision stayed.

'Gay couples in Idaho may not begin marrying on Friday after all, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said Thursday.'

http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-idaho-gay-marriage-stay-20140515-story.html

[rsmith6621]

2. Its to bad the SCOTUS wont put a positive end to all this.

But we all know what way at this time they would RULE...Dont WE.

[elleng]

3. We're pretty close,

Last edited Sun May 18, 2014, 03:22 AM - Edit history (1)

with lower court decisions like this. We DON'T know. Remember Windsor decision: United States v. Windsor, 570 U.S. 12 (2013) (Docket No. 12-307), a landmark case[1][2][3] in which the United States Supreme Court held that restricting U.S. federal interpretation of "marriage" and "spouse" to apply only to heterosexual unions, by Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), is unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment, because doing so "disparage[s] and ... injure[s] those whom the State, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity." Wiki

'U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy Wagahoff Dale issued her sweeping opinion knocking down Idaho state laws and a state constitutional amendment, passed in 2006, as failing to live up to the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment guarantee no "state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
"Idaho's marriage laws deny its gay and lesbian citizens the fundamental right to marry and relegate their families to a stigmatized, second-class status without sufficient reason for doing so," Dale wrote. "These laws do not withstand any applicable level of constitutional scrutiny. . . The judge also described the state's contention that gay marriage should be banned in the name of "religious liberty" to be "myopic."

"No doubt many faiths around the world and in Idaho have longstanding traditions of man-woman marriage rooted in scripture," Dale said. "But not all religions share the view that opposite-sex marriage is a theological imperative."
Even if a majority of people in Idaho oppose same-sex marriage, that doesn't mean their opinion should equate to law, according to the judge.
She stated: "This case asks a basic and enduring question about the essence of American government: Whether the will of the majority, based as it often is on sincere beliefs and democratic consensus, may trump the rights of a minority."

[RKP5637]

5. I have no trust in SCOTUS, none at all. One can be sure their decision would be F'ed up, as usual.

[Thinkingabout]

4. It is coming or the states which continue to have their bills rejected will soon

Spend their time on something else.

[RKP5637]

6. What will they do if the time comes when they don't have gays to bash around. Some

people/states just gotta have something to hate. Throughout the history of the US some groups have been targeted for hatred, I do wonder who will be next.

[Thinkingabout]

7. Oh, the hate will not go away, just as the racial slurs continue so will some kind of hate talk.

I wish it would be different but they just can't give up the hate.

[pinto]

8. relegate their families to a stigmatized, second-class status without sufficient reason for doing so

Good statement.