Yep, The Supreme Court Lit A Fuse To End Gay Marriage Bans Across USA

[DonViejo]

SAHIL KAPUR – FEBRUARY 13, 2014, 1:00 PM EST4179
Last summer, the Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision equalizing the treatment of all married couples under federal law. But it opted not to address the more fundamental question in a related case: whether gay and straight couples are entitled to equal protection on the state level, where marriage law is made.

That extraordinary dodge was seen by some experts as a disingenuous way of seeking a middle ground in the rulings on the Defense of Marriage Act and California's ban on same-sex marriage. Dissenting Justice Antonin Scalia fumed that it amounted to "legalistic argle-bargle." And it appears he had a point: a number of federal judges from Utah to Kentucky have concluded that the Supreme Court's legal reasoning does not leave substantial room for state-based discrimination against gay marriage.

Recently, federal judges in Utah and Oklahoma overturned the states' bans on gay marriage as unconstitutional, leading to chaos as gay marriage was briefly legal there before the states appealed the decisions and halted them. In Ohio, a federal judge ordered the state to recognize same-sex marriages on death certificates. And on Wednesday, a federal judge in Kentucky ordered the state to recognize out-of-state gay marriages.

"To Kennedy, federalism was key to the DOMA decision. But it's the other parts of the decision that are influencing lower courts the most," said Adam Winkler, a professor at UCLA School of Law, who supports marriage equality. "Courts today are finding in Windsor strong support for the idea that denials of marriage benefits are based in anti-gay attitudes, not valid public policy goals. The Court in Windsor purposefully avoided ruling on the constitutionality of a marriage ban, so it's not a matter of following [or] not following the Court. Kennedy purposefully kept the window open for courts to strike down marriage bans."

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/supreme-court-judges-same-sex-marriage-doma

[MineralMan]

1. Windsor was the tipping point.

The language and reasoning gives Federal Judges the way to make states at least recognize those marriages. The whole sham is falling apart and soon there will be no way for states to have discriminatory laws against same sex married couples. The next step is ending the states' laws against marriage equality.

Equal is equal. If things are not equal, they are unconstitutional.