Thoughts in a Haystack

As pointed out by Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog, Chief Judge Robert C. Chambers of Huntington, West Virginia, on Friday formally nullified the state's ban, even though the state had conceded that the Fourth Circuit's decision overturning Virginia's ban applied to West Virginia and had allowed same-sex marriages to begin in the state.

Judge Chambers, however, like Judge Martha Craig Daughtrey, took issue with the Sixth Circuit's decision by Judge Jeffrey Sutton that upheld bigotry against gay people as long as enough people hated them. It is only a footnote (which I think is all Judge Suton's decision deserves) but, stripped of the legal technicalities, it is a fine summary:

The Sixth Circuit in DeBoer v. Snyder ... reached the opposite result. The majority there noted two rationales in support of the marriage bans. ... First, the court found the marriage bans in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee to be rooted in the States' interest in regulating procreation by providing incentives for parents to remain together. ... But the opinion then conceded that this view of marriage can no longer be sustained, that marriage now serves "another value—to solemnize relationships characterized by love, affection, and commitment." .... Denying marital status and its benefits to a couple that cannot procreate does nothing to further the original interest of regulating procreation and irrationally excludes the couple from the latter purpose of marriage. Second, the majority in DeBoer implores opponents of the marriage bans to proceed slowly, through the legislative process, and justifies the bans by asserting the States' right to take a "wait and see" approach. ... This approach, however, fails to recognize the role of courts in the democratic process. It is the duty of the judiciary to examine government action through the lens of the Constitution's protection of individual freedom. Courts cannot avoid or deny this duty just because it arises during the contentious public debate that often accompanies the evolution of policy making throughout the states. Judges may not simultaneously find a right violated yet defer to an uncertain future remedy voluntarily undertaken by the violators.

As a footnote of my own, I know this blog was originally one about the so-called evolution/creationism "debate." I've spent much more time here, over the last year or more, on the issue of marriage equality. Sorry. But this is the great issue of civil rights in my (blogging) lifetime. I can no more ignore it than I could have the run up to and aftermath of Brown v. Board of Education. If my old friends aren't interested, I understand, and, as always, wish you well.