Fantastic Friday News

According to the HuffPo, the SCOTUS is going to hear BOTH the California Prop 8 case AND the DOMA challenge.  There is the potential for same sex marriage, at one stroke, legal in the entire United States, not the state by state slow advance in civil rights for people who have same sex orientation.

This could save a possible fight in our own legislature over introducing same sex marriage, which Governor Dayton recently indicated he would sign.

So far, those who oppose same-sex marriage have not in any way supported a claim that allowing same-sex marriage would alter, much less harm, their marriage status, just as the SCOTUS striking down of anti-miscegenation laws did not harm marriage.  There is absolutely no credible evidence that same sex couples are less committed, less loving, or not equally good parents as heterosexual couples, or that they have long term committed relationships which are different than heterosexual couples.

While the current Supreme Court has been extremely conservative activist, the attorneys working on behalf of overturning the Prop 8 gay marriage ban legislation, both with extensive experience before the SCOTUS, seem to feel the time is right for these matters to be pressed for a decision.

This could end up being one of the most remarkable changes to occur during the Obama presidency, although obviously not a direct result of anything he has done.

Getting rid of DOMA this way would be a lot easier than having to fight with the homophobic right to drag them kicking and screaming into the 21 century.  Finally the United States is becoming more free, not the less free we have been under the Tea Party/GOP tyranny waging extremist culture war on U.S. citizens.

From the HuffPo:

Supreme Court On Gay Marriage: Prop 8, DOMA To Receive Hearings 

 The United States Supreme Court will review the decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that struck down Proposition 8, a 2008 law which banned gay marriage in California.

The appeals court's ruling issued was issued in February and found the law unconstitutional.
The court will also hear challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act.
The AP reports:

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court will take up California's ban on same-sex marriage, a case that could give the justices the chance to rule on whether gay Americans have the same constitutional right to marry as heterosexuals. The justices said Monday they will review a federal appeals court ruling that struck down the state's gay marriage ban, though on narrow grounds. The San Francisco-based appeals court said the state could not take away the same-sex marriage right that had been granted by California's Supreme Court.
The court also will decide whether Congress can deprive legally married gay couples of federal benefits otherwise available to married people. A provision of the federal Defense of Marriage Act limits a range of health and pension benefits, as well as favorable tax treatment, to heterosexual couples.