Wednesday, 21 May 2014

Same-sex marriage is back on in Oregon.

quote [ A federal judge threw out Oregon's same-sex marriage ban Monday, marking the 13th consecutive legal victory for gay marriage advocates since last year's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned part of a federal ban. ]

I have no idea who will or will not care, but since my friends lists are jumping for joy I may as well share the news.

Back in 2004, Portland started recognizing gay marriage under an Air Bud "there's no law that says they can't get married" loophole. So Oregon made a law against it. That law's now been ruled unconstitutional, the state of Oregon is not willing to defend it, and NOM's attempt to appeal on Oregon's behalf was told to get stuffed. We may have a measure on the ballot this November to explicitly endorse same-sex marriage instead of the Air Bud rule we're currently acting under.
[SFW] [politics] [+10 Good]
[by Bruceski@9:26amGMT]

Comments

GordonGuano said @ 11:29am GMT on 21st May [Score:5 Funsightful]
I liked Wonkette's headline:

OREGON CATCHES UP WITH PROGRESSIVE TRENDSETTERS IDAHO & ARKANSAS, LEGALIZES GAY MARRIAGE.

I guess it's nice that the good guys seem to be winning the culture war, because winning elections doesn't seem to do jack shit.
Bruceski said @ 8:14pm GMT on 21st May [Score:1 Informative]
To be fair, we were one of the first three three (if I recall) places to do it in 2004, and that got a lot of anti-gay money and pressure thrown behind Measure 36. After that things had to wait until an appropriate case made its way through the court system to challenge that.
lilmookieesquire said @ 3:18pm GMT on 21st May
Such clarity +1 lazor
Dalillama said @ 7:08pm GMT on 21st May [Score:1 Funsightful]
There's nearly another dozen states where the overturn is on hold pending appeal, when those go through (I'm not really seeing that the appeals are likely to get anywhere at this point) we'll be up past half the states.
mechavolt said @ 9:29pm GMT on 21st May
Hooray for checks and balances, I suppose. A little depressing that we need to depend on the wildly inconsistent judicial system to fix this shit, seeing as a significant number of lawmakers seem to actively hate civil rights.
HoZay said @ 10:59pm GMT on 21st May
And those lawmakers are elected by asshole voters.
Seriously, these people are fighting the last battle of a lost war.
rhesusmonkey said @ 2:50am GMT on 22nd May
And yet, arguably the Check was that elected officials passed a law presumably with the mandate of the majority. The Balance is the judicial system overruling and stating that the laws made were effectively "illegal" because they violate a different set of laws.

I'm not really clear on what ground the federal law trumps State law, but I suppose that there is enough precedent that the lawmakers should have known in advance that what they were writing would not pass muster. It's not like the Beaver State could pass a "no blacks allowed" law even if they had a similarly "clear mandate" through elections.

To be clear I am for the equality of marriage to anyone who wants to undertake what is effectively a legally binding contract between consenting adults. It is sad to me though that what passes for "effective lawmaking" means throwing together something to "get votes" and to show that you are "taking action" on behalf of constituents, knowing full well that you are simply wasting your own time, a future judges time, and lots and lots of taxpayer money.

In Canada this tends to be exacerbated as a candidate only represents at best 40% of the voting public, which given turn-out rates tends to be closer to 20% of eligible voters. With at least 3 major candidate parties and 2-3 minor ones per riding, plus a handful of independents, there has not been a "clear mandate" at provincial (state) or federal level since the mid '90s.
foobar said @ 3:55am GMT on 22nd May
If I understand the American system correctly, Federal law trumps State law when you dislike the State law, and State law trumps Federal law when you dislike the Federal law.

The Canadian system more or less works so long as no one has a majority.

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