Faux Tea Party reporter Susie Sampson hits the streets to take the public temperature on same-sex marriage.
The “City of God” t-shirt guy is pretty interesting…
Texas: Attorney General Seeks to “Void” Marriage License Of Lesbian Cancer Patient
Yesterday, Suzanne Bryant and Sarah Goodfriend became the first legally married same-sex couple in Texas. But now, Attorney General Ken Paxton is asking the state’s Supreme Court to declare the couple’s marriage “void.”
Via the Advocate:
“The rogue actions of Travis County judges do not withstand the scrutiny of law,” Paxton said in a statement. “The same-sex marriage license issued yesterday is not valid because it conflicts with the Texas Constitution and State law — the license is therefore void ab initio. The filing we made today with the Texas Supreme Court confirms these points.”
After a state-level judge in Travis County, which includes the state capital of Austin, found Texas’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional Wednesday, Bryant and Goodfriend asked another local judge to consider their emergency request for a marriage license to be issued to the mothers of two, citing Goodfriend’s ongoing battle with ovarian cancer.
Thursday morning, state District Judge David Wahlberg granted the couple’s request, and they were married immediately outside the Travis County courthouse. Wahlberg’s ruling directly ordered Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir to issue a marriage license to Goodfriend and Bryant only, not to other same-sex couples.
Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir disagrees with Paxton, saying the marriage license as issued is valid.
The couple has been together more than 30 years.
Washington: Florist Declines Offer To Settle LGBT Discrimination Lawsuit
Barronelle Stutzman, the Washington state florist who refused to provide flowers for a gay wedding, has declined to accept an offer from the Washington state attorney general to settle her discrimination case by paying a $2,000 fine and agreeing to sell bouquets for same-sex ceremonies in the future.
In a letter to the Attorney General Bob Ferguson, Stutzman wrote that gay couples are allowed to act on their views, but “because I follow the Bible’s teaching that marriage is the union of one man and one woman, I am no longer free to act on my beliefs.”
From the Washington Post:
Stutzman, 70, owner of Arlene’s Flowers in Richland, Washington, says she plans to appeal a judge’s ruling that she broke a state anti-discrimination law.
Benton County Superior Court Judge Alex Ekstrom on Wednesday rejected arguments that Stutzman’s actions were protected by her freedoms of speech and religion.
The First Amendment protects religious beliefs but not necessarily actions based on those beliefs, Ekstrom ruled. The state has the authority to prohibit discrimination, and Stutzman can be held personally liable for damages if she breaks bias laws, the judge said.
A gay couple and the state sued the florist, who could be required to pay damages and legal fees that far exceed the attorney general’s offer.
Ferguson said Thursday that his goal wasn’t Stutzman’s financial ruin. He offered to settle the case for $2,000 — the fine for violations of the law — and a $1 payment for legal fees if she would agree not to discriminate against same-sex couples.
“My primary goal has always been to bring about an end to the defendants’ unlawful conduct and to make clear that I will not tolerate discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation,” Ferguson said in a news release.
Stutzman becomes a national martyr in 3, 2, 1…
HRC Requests Phone And Email Records Of Alabama Judge Roy Moore
The Human Rights Campaign has filed an Alabama Open Records request for the email and phone records of Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore in order to ascertain whether or not he used his official position to coordinate a plan with two anti-LGBT groups to stop same-sex marriage in the state.
Last week, the two anti-LGBT activist groups, API and ALCAP, filed an emergency petition to the Alabama Supreme Court, hoping to stop marriage equality across the state. On Friday, the Alabama Supreme Court voted 6-2 to take up the petition. Justice Moore did not vote. Responses to the petition were due at 5 p.m. Wednesday.
“We want to know whether Justice Moore inappropriately used the power of his office to direct legal strategy in a case before his own court,” said HRC Alabama State Director R. Ashley Jackson. “Judge Moore is no stranger to questionable legal ethics and Alabamians have the right to know whether their chief justice has acted inappropriately once again. We ask Justice Moore to come clean and voluntarily hand over these files.”
According to Alabama Open Records Law § 36-12-40 et seq., HRC Alabama has requested to publicly inspect Moore’s email communications containing the following terms: gay; lesbian; homosexual; marriage; or Granade. HRC Alabama has also requested the phone records from January 23, 2015 to present. The listed time frame begins from the day U.S. District Judge Ginny Granade struck down Alabama’s discriminatory ban on marriage.
Right-Wing Website Says Same-Sex Marriage Is Like Slavery
The conservative website, Public Discourse, posts an essay today that says the legal arguments for marriage equality and 1857’s Dred Scott case for slavery law are pretty much the same thing.
The structure and logic of the legal arguments made for nationwide judicial imposition of same-sex marriage are remarkably similar to the arguments made by those who argued for the judicial imposition of slavery nationwide.
[snip]
In both Dred Scott and Windsor, the Court’s legal analysis was transparently result-oriented: the justices wanted a particular result, and manipulated the law to reach the outcome they thought preferable as a social-policy matter. In both cases, the majority’s “reasoning” wanders aimlessly before finally settling into the same oft-discredited judicial invention of “substantive due process”—the idea that it is simply morally wrong, or mean, for a democracy to deny a legal right or status conferred under the law of a different jurisdiction. In both cases, the majority opinions were subject to devastating dissents, and they produced greatly divided public reaction. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Dred Scott and Windsor are two peas from the same judicial-activist pod.
Texas Attorney General: Travis County Same-Sex Marriage Is Now “Void”
|
| Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton |
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced that he believes the same-sex marriage performed in Travis County is “void” due to yesterday afternoon’s ruling by the state Supreme Court.
The county clerk who issued the license disagrees.
From USA Today:
“The Court’s action upholds our state constitution and stays these rulings by activist judges in Travis County,” Paxton said in a statement. “The same-sex marriage license issued by the Travis County Clerk is void, just as any license issued in violation of state law would be. I will continue to defend the will of the people of Texas, who have defined marriage as between one man and one woman, against any judicial activism or overreach.”
According to the Travis County clerk’s office, Judge David Wahlberg signed a state court order Thursday, commanding Travis County Clerk Dana Debeauvoir to “cease and desist relying on the unconstitutional Texas prohibitions against same-sex marriage as a basis for not issuing a marriage license specifically to Plaintiffs Sarah Goodfriend and Suzanne Bryant” because Goodfriend has ovarian cancer.
The couple married under the judge’s one-time court order. The Texas Supreme Court issued an emergency order blocking gay couples from obtaining marriage licenses after the couple wed Thursday. Despite the attorney general’s statement, Debeauvoir said the marriage still stands. In a statement, the clerk’s office said, “The Texas Supreme Court order on the Motion for Temporary Relief has stayed further proceedings in the trial court, and is not directed at the County Clerk. “I have every reason to believe that the actions I took this morning were legally correct based on the trial court’s order, and that the license my office issued was then and is now valid. There is no further action for me to take at this time,” Debeauvoir said in a statement.
The couple, Sarah Goodfriend and Suzanne Bryant, have been together for over 30 years.
Texas State Supreme Court Says No More Gay Marriages
Following the wedding of Sarah Goodfriend and Suzanne Bryant this morning in Austin, Texas, the Texas Supreme Court has issued an emergency order blocking all future gay marriages.
Goodfriend and Bryant were issued the license after a District judge ordered Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir to grant it.
From WOAI:
“The Texas Supreme Court has granted a stay of two trial court rulings that Texas’ constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages violates constitutional protections to equal protection and due process of law,” The Texas Attorney General’s office said this afternoon. “Motions to stay orders by two Travis County judges, one in a probate case and the other a temporary-restraining order granting a same-sex couple a marriage license, were sought by the Texas Attorney General’s Office.
“In the probate case the attorney general also sought an order reversing the probate judge’s decision in a case to determine a will contest. That petition for a mandamus writ remains pending.”
Typewriter Rodeo Celebrates Same-Sex Marriage In Texas
|
| Via TypewriterRodeo on Twitter |
“the four horsemen lay down their cards
and look up
through the jagged maw
through the steaming hellmouth
Hey, says War. You see that?
What? ask Pestilence. The Texas thing?
I saw it, says Famine. Who Cares
Seriously, says Death. Go fish.
and so they pick up their cards
resuming their game
not giving a flying fu ck
who gets married
to whom”
New CNN/ORC Poll Shows 63% Of Americans Support Same-Sex Marriage
A new CNN/ORC poll shows 63% of Americans agree that gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry and have their marriages recognized by the law as valid.
This reflects an increase in support of 14 points since August 2010.
Texas: First Same-Sex Marriage Takes Place In Travis County
According to the Austin Statesman, at just after 9am today Sarah Goodfriend and Suzanne Bryant in Travis County became the first same-sex couple married in the state of Texas:
Two Austin women were legally married Thursday morning after a Travis County judge ordered the county clerk to issue a marriage license.
Sarah Goodfriend and Suzanne Bryant, together almost 31 years, said their vows before Rabbi Kerry Baker while standing in front of the Travis County Clerk’s Office sign on Airport Boulevard.
The couple was denied a license in the same office building eight years ago. On Wednesday morning, state District Judge David Wahlberg, petitioned by a lawyer for Goodfriend and Bryant, ordered Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir to grant the couple a marriage license.
The ceremony was a mix of personal – with friends and their teenage daughters, Dawn and Ting, standing nearby – and public statement, with photos of their vows in front of the county sign.
The ruling appears to only apply to this one couple:
#TravisCounty clerk says she received a court order from a district state judge to perform this ONE #samesexmarriage
— Texas Standard (@TexasStandard) February 19, 2015
By court order Travis County Clerk issues marriage license to same sex couple. Any licenses issued to same sex couples must be court ordered
— Travis County Clerk (@TravisCoClerk) February 19, 2015
Watch below as the happy couple receives the news of the ruling.