DOMA provision Struck Down. Supreme Court fucks over GOP!

[RobinStarwing]

AT 9:10 today, the Supreme Court ruled that Gay and Lesbians have access to the same benefits and rights as Straight people in Lawful marriages. No news articles yet so stay tuned!

This (hopefully means) the rest of DOMA is going to die a horrible death.

EDIT: Prop 8 will be today as well.

EDIT 2: Decision 5 to 4 with Scallia writing about how he thinks the government can legislate morality and that the Supreme Court has exercised "Judicial Supremacy" and decision has been issued on Prop 8. More to come in the next few minutes.

EDIT 3: CNN News Article on Federal DOMA decision.

EDIT 4: SCOTUS dismisses Prop 8 Appeal. Rather strange line-up in the decision as Scalia was in with the majority.

EDIT 5: SCOTUS decision regarding Prop 8 which says in short that Private parties have no standing in defending a state law that the State itself refused to defend.

[Aerozord]

US law is very exacting so I want to get this straight

They ruled that same-sex marriages have the same benefits, or that homosexuals have the right to be married?

[RobinStarwing]

Originally Posted by Aerozord

US law is very exacting so I want to get this straight

They ruled that same-sex marriages have the same benefits, or that homosexuals have the right to be married?

Pretty much both.

The DOMA decision struck down a key provision that kept legal married same-sex couples from the same rights and benefits as regular straight marriages as unconstitutional.

The Prop 8 decision upholds a lower court decision striking Prop 8 as unconstitutional AND makes it harder for private parties to try and defend such laws in the future when they are struck down by saying they have no standing to defend a state law before the Courts. Only an Attorney General's Office or State Governor (or a lawyer he appoints possibly) has the ability to defend state laws before any Court, including SCOTUS.

EDIT: FUX News is currently showing a press conference with Putin. I guess they want to live in lala-land again.

EDIT: To further explain, states where Gay Marriage is banned are still banned however the decision and opinions of the Majority make it clear these states either get ahead of the wave and void these laws or the Supreme Court will do it for them. They also can not stop people from getting benefits federally if they were married in another state that allows & recognizes Same Sex Marriage.

[CABAL49]

What this did was declare the ban on gay marriage unconstitutional. It neither give benefits nor rights to gay or lesbian couples. Legislation at the state and federal level would still be needed to grant these rights. The Supreme Court doesn't get to make laws.

[Aerozord]

Originally Posted by CABAL49

The Supreme Court doesn't get to make laws.

yes it does

by declaring something unconstitutional they essentially pass a law declaring organizations cannot do something.

[Mr.Bookworm]

Originally Posted by Aerozord

US law is very exacting so I want to get this straight

They ruled that same-sex marriages have the same benefits, or that homosexuals have the right to be married?

Section 3 of DoMA was ruled unconstitutional.

Section 3. Definition of marriage
In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and agencies of the United States, the word 'marriage' means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word 'spouse' refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.

Therefore, married gay people can now receive the full benefits that apply to being married.

The other ruling they made was not actually a ruling. They declined to make a judgment on Prop 8 (the California one), meaning the lower court's decision that struck it down stands.

Originally Posted by Aerozord

yes it does

by declaring something unconstitutional they essentially pass a law declaring organizations cannot do something.

No. That's not how it works. At all.

The Supreme Court judges laws and determines whether they are constitutional or not. That is, literally, all they can do. They can strike down laws, but not create them.

In the present DoMA case, frex, they determined that section 3 of DoMA violated the Fifth Amendment.

EDIT: Oh, yeah, the actual thing I came in here to post about:

Go Google "gay".

[Gregness]

I found a rather decent summary of the specifics of the rulings.

Disclaimer: I'm not a law student and so take my endorsement with a grain of salt.

[RobinStarwing]

So I got off work earlier tonight and decided; just for kicks, to turn on the local Conservative Talk Radio station to see what they had to say about the decisions.

Apparently we are now on the "brink of a judicially-implemented Gay marriage law nationally" brought to us by "President Kennedy" and that we are trying to mess with a "2000 year old experiment in marriage" and "redefining a word" of God....

I had to pull over and stop driving cause I was laughing so hard. I would of thought it was sad satire if I didn't know these people actually BELIEVE the mental shit the spew from their forward-facing assholes.

[Gregness]

In their defense, they may actually be right on the national gay marriage thing. They dismissed one of the cases based on lack of standing, but once a case reaches SCOTUS involving the full faith and credit clause it could just turn out that way de facto if not de jure.