Equality news round-up: Mississippi, Arkansas marriage news
November 26, 2014
LGBT Legal Cases Marriage equality Marriage Equality Trials
– The big news yesterday was that marriage bans in Arkansas and Mississippi were struck down.
– SCOTUSBlog discusses both rulings.
– The Washington Blade has reactions from LGBT advocates in the state, and they also report that the state will appeal the ruling to the Fifth Circuit.
– A reaction to the Mississippi ruling from a local LGBT activist.
Having technical problems? Visit our support page to report an issue!
64 Comments
1.
Randolph_Finder | November 26, 2014 at 8:36 am
"The other federal appeals courts in which state bans are being tested — so far without a ruling — are those in the First, Fifth, and Eleventh Circuits."
Apparently the SCOTUSblog people are from an Alternate Universe where Puerto Rico is a state.
2. Zack12&hellip | November 26, 2014 at 9:04 am
If Ginsburg passes away, then we are screwed, simple as that.
The GOP will NOT allow anyone to get onto SCOTUS for the next two years unless he/she is a far right Federalist Society member.
3.
RQO | November 26, 2014 at 4:04 pm
The problem is press releases about the health of major government officials are what you might call "tightly edited". A stent: the truth. Anything else: maybe not mentioned, like Wilson's stroke and Reagan's Alzheimers. Or for those of you old enough, remember the SNL skits on Francisco Franco?
4.
RQO | November 26, 2014 at 4:07 pm
When we try to litigate ENDA protections in the court, let's see how these R judges hold up.
5.
RnL2008 | November 26, 2014 at 4:24 pm
We certainly will have to wait and see…no worrying about it will change it……I believe in the long run, we will win out…..I know that may seem a bit naive, but it's how I believe in the long run….we will have set backs….to expect none would be foolish…….but in the long run, we should prevail!!!
6. debater7474&hellip | November 26, 2014 at 9:42 am
Depressing fact of the day: Thomas is only 66 years old. The Republicans must have shoved him on the court when he was like, 40. The fact that Sotomayor is already 60 reminds me of how incompetent Democrats are.
7.
rob2017 | November 26, 2014 at 10:49 am
The Washington Blade article references the "Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (Part 60)" as a means to void/reverse the earlier determinations in favor of marriage equality. This would be in the UNLIKELY event that SCOTUS later upholds the bans. My question is: who would invoke this rule, is it SCOTUS or the various Appellate Courts, e.g., the Fourth Circuit, that had their decisions upheld via SCOTUS not having granted cert in October 2014? In other words, if its not up to SCOTUS and the Fourth Circuit decides not to invoke this rule, marriage equality remains in the Fourth? And this rule applies only to courts and not the AG's or Governor's? I know this is highly speculative and unlikely to happen, but I now see this law and am curious – and a wee bit worried.
8.
SethInMaryland | November 26, 2014 at 10:55 am
the finland Parliament is going to be voting on on a marriage equality in 2 days, it's going to be to close ,it will come down the governing ruling moderate party, there is a extreme right wing to the party which is going to make it diffcult
insiders in finland have reported One report suggested the legislation will pass as 99 MPs have expressed support with 86 against, however there were 14 MPs whose positions remained unknown.
9.
Jaesun100 | November 26, 2014 at 12:45 pm
Well Well , this is how it should work ……
"Bill to prohibit LGBT discrimination in Florida introduced with bipartisan support"
I thought I was in the twilight zone or something had to read that twice !!
10.
Jaesun100 | November 26, 2014 at 12:54 pm
"UPDATE 2: The state has requested a stay in the Fifth Circuit."
when the State gets the stay , can our side request the Supreme Court lift the stay ?
11.
F_Young | November 26, 2014 at 3:30 pm
Off Topic: Loophole could allow transgender troops to serve under new DoD policy
http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/penta…
However, a Pentagon spokesman denied the Pentagon has altered its policy prohibiting service by transgender individuals.
12.
Zack12 | November 26, 2014 at 8:28 pm
Sad to say but I fear it will be a long time, if ever before transgender troops get in.
13.
JayJonson | November 26, 2014 at 5:01 pm
Utah has agreed to pay attorney fees of $95,000 to ACLU in the marriage equality litigation. The ACLU asked for $200,000. Utah paid $300,000 to the conservative group attorneys who said that they would work at a discounted rate. Sounds very suspicious to me. Here is a link: http://fox13now.com/2014/11/25/utah-same-sex-marr…
14.
A_Jayne | November 26, 2014 at 5:22 pm
Apparently that was only the attorneys for the ~300 couples married between the decision and the first stay at the end of last year and the beginning of this one. They fought Herbert et al's attempt to declare them invalid – and won.
Utah will be paying much more to the attorneys who have taken other aspects of these cases to court.
15.
RnL2008 | November 26, 2014 at 5:37 pm
Okay, who changed the format? By the way folks…wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving and we have much to be thankful for<3
16.
AndresM11 | November 27, 2014 at 7:43 am
Happy Thanksgiving for you too Rose!! You're right, we have SO MANY things to be thankful for 🙂 our families, our loved ones and the fact that as each day passes, more couples within our community achieve the equality for which so many people have fought so hard! 🙂 Also, I'm thankful for being able to share this forum with you guys, for Scottie's commitment to keeping the site updated with all the news, and for the legal explanations of Raga, Brandall, Zack and so many others that have taught us so much 🙂
I live in a pretty conservative country, but I'm thankful because the world is slowly becoming a better place for all LGBT people 🙂
Have a nice day! 😀
17.
RnL2008 | November 27, 2014 at 10:59 am
Thank you and yes…so much to be incredibly thankful for…..to all of my cyber friends, to all the couples who have put themselves front and center fighting the good fight and to those folks who support our right to marry and stand with us……hugs to them all!!!
18.
guitaristbl | November 26, 2014 at 5:55 pm
McDaniel says he will decide after thanksgiving on whether to appeal or not the federal district court's decision in Arkansas AND he will consult the AG elect Leslie Rutledge, a republican. Rutledge is the worst kind of bigoted GOP, one very typical for the south I guess. She used against one of her opponents in the primaries the fact that he had some kind of position in the American Bar association which passed an "anti-traditional marriage " (according to Rutledge) resolution. She supports the federal marriage amendment of course in case federal courts rule in favour of ME and on her site she constantly talks about "federal overreach" and "10th amendment" and then weirdly enough she says she will fight for the rights "of all Arkansans" (apparently LGBT people cannot be Arkansans).
So yeah all in all expect an appeal and, if SCOTUS does not freeze procedures by taking up a case, a much more bigoted "not giving up" attitude than the one McDaniel had, possibly close to what we see in Kansas (especially given who was elected governor as well in Arkansas).
19.
Zack12 | November 26, 2014 at 8:30 pm
At the end of the day, a bigot is still a bigot.
McDaniel has claimed to be an ally, yet has used many of the same bigoted arguments Rutledge has.
But since he was "nicer" about it, he thinks he isn't as bad.
A bigot is a bigot, period.
20.
FredDorner | November 26, 2014 at 9:09 pm
"At the end of the day, a bigot is still a bigot."
Except when there's a legal strategy intended to achieve statewide equality, as the Missouri AG is doing. I don't know what the Arkansas AG is thinking but it might well involve a similar strategy.
21.
scream4ever | November 27, 2014 at 9:30 am
I really hope the Arkansas attorney general requests that the stay be lifted when he appeals to the 8th.
22.
guitaristbl | November 27, 2014 at 9:38 am
Extremely unlikely given that his decision will most likely be influenced by what the bigot who takes over in January wants.
23.
scream4ever | November 27, 2014 at 3:49 pm
You're right I actually meant Missouri. A stay was not requested in the case being appealed to the state supreme court and the federal judge did say in his stay denial that the attorney general is free to request for the stay to be lifted. Arkansas is likely to end this month with the state supreme court issuing a favorable opinion.
24.
Dr. Z | November 26, 2014 at 6:01 pm
Hey! What happened to the mobile site?
25.
RLsfba | November 26, 2014 at 7:18 pm
My guess is that the developers are putting some new versions together and occasionally live test it because total staging on another server for testing can be resource intensive and I bet this is being done on a minimal budget. I wonder if that has had been the reason for the occasional slowdowns.
26.
ebohlman | November 26, 2014 at 8:09 pm
A little while ago I reloaded the front page (on my desktop) and got the mobile version. About 10 minutes later, I reloaded again and got the standard version. I'm guessing that some changes are being pushed to production but they're not all propagating at the same rate.
27.
Raga | November 26, 2014 at 9:03 pm
Me too. Plus, now when I click on a comment in the recent comment list on the left, it doesn't jump to the comment. Dunno what's up with that.
28.
ebohlman | November 27, 2014 at 12:27 am
That one's working now.
29.
Elihu_Bystander | November 27, 2014 at 7:07 am
I would like to sincerely wish everyone on this site a very Happy Thanksgiving from Three Rivers CA nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada the gateway to Sequoia National Park.
30.
guitaristbl | November 27, 2014 at 8:27 am
Happy thanksgiving to all Americans ! To the rest of the world this is a normal day though and with the vote in the Finnish parliament tomorrow, some bad news come along. Slovakia will hold a referendum to ban same sex marriage, adoption by same sex couples and sex education against the will of the parents after a group closely affiliated and funded by the well known American groups (I think it's focus on the family in this case who poured lots of money in Slovakia) gathered 400.000 signatures (about 10 % of the country's electorate) on a relevant petition :
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2014/11/27/slovakia-to-…
It will take place on February 7 and given how conservative Slovakia is I would expect it to be approved by more than 80 % (or even more) of the people who will bother to vote. And that's probably the only thing that can save it here : turnout. For a referendum's results to be declared valid in Slovakia turnout has to be over 50%. Slovakia has held numerous referendums since it became independent and only one had enough turnout for the result to be valid, the one about the EU membership (turnout was 52 % and was approved by more than 93 % of the population).although I am afraid churches and organizations will be hysteric to get the needed turnout and vilification of LGBT people will be on the daily menu from now on in an overwhelmingly catholic country. They may have a good chance to get the needed turnout…
31.
Pat_V | November 28, 2014 at 3:18 am
Ironically, since the measure will be overwhelmingly approved, the smartest way to defeat the measure is for pro-gay voters to NOT vote, so that turnout remains below 50%…