Ruling Poses Potential Obstacle at Supreme Court for Same-Sex Marriage

[theHandpuppet]

The New York Times
Ruling Poses Potential Obstacle at Supreme Court for Same-Sex Marriage
By Adam Liptak
July 28, 2014

WASHINGTON — Same-sex marriage has had a spectacular year in the courts, with an unbroken run of more than 25 victories. The decisions have become routine, almost monotonous.

But there was a note of discord this month in a ruling from a federal appeals court, one that may foreshadow a problem for gay rights advocates at the Supreme Court.

The result in the new decision was the usual one: the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, in Denver, struck down Oklahoma’s same-sex marriage ban.

But a 27-page concurrence from Judge Jerome A. Holmes rejected the rationale most likely to appeal to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, whose vote will be crucial when the question of whether there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage returns to the court...

MORE at http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/29/us/politics/ruling-poses-potential-obstacle-at-supreme-court-for-same-sex-marriage.html?_r=0

[Bluenorthwest]

1. SCOTUS needs to cut the crap and start communicating their decisions with puffs of either black or

white smoke.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. {Oklahoma} Ruling Poses Potential Obstacle at Supreme Court for Same-Sex Marriage

Whoops. I hadn't seen your thread. I'm deleting mine. Sorry.

Ruling Poses Potential Obstacle at Supreme Court for Same-Sex Marriage

JULY 28, 2014
Sidebar
By ADAM LIPTAK

....
The result in the new decision was the usual one: the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, in Denver, struck down Oklahoma’s same-sex marriage ban.

But a 27-page concurrence from Judge Jerome A. Holmes rejected the rationale most likely to appeal to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, whose vote will be crucial when the question of whether there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage returns to the court.
....

For Justice Kennedy, animus is “a doctrinal silver bullet,” Susannah W. Pollvogt, who is about to join the law faculty at Washburn University, wrote last year in an online supplement to The Columbia Law Review.

Judge Holmes agreed that evidence of animus is fatal. “What happens when the clues are all gathered and animus is detected?” he asked. “The answer is simple: The law falls.”
....

In Oklahoma, Judge Holmes wrote, there was no evidence of hostility toward gays. The constitutional amendment approved by the state’s voters, he said, merely reinforced what had always been so: same-sex couples were not allowed to marry before its adoption or after it.

[closeupready]

3. Oh, what nonsense. Everyone knows gay people are hated strongly

all over the US, particularly in places like Texas and Oklahoma. Hell, isn't that Sally "we could be thrown in jail for even TALKING about gay marriage" Kerns' state?

Shouldn't be a difficult point to prove. Look at Catholic doctrine. Southern Baptist teachings. Almost every single mainstream religious institution in the US is explicitly HOSTILE to gay people. Combined with discovering which organized groups are financing these 'defense of marriage' amendments, and there you go.