- Joined
- Feb 6, 2010
- Messages
- 101,029
- Reaction score
- 53,858
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Undisclosed
U.S. judge rules Nebraska same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional | Reuters
The order:
8:14-cv-00356 #54 - Nebraska Memo and Order
The order also references one of my favorite judicial smackdowns in the history of this issue, Baskin v Bogan:
Again and again, proponents of same-sex marriage bans simply cannot make a reasonable case for their personal beliefs to be law.
Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday ruled Nebraska's ban on gay marriage unconstitutional in a decision that could allow same-sex couples to marry in the state within a week.
U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon issued a preliminary injunction in the case brought by seven same-sex couples in the state, calling Nebraska's ban an "unabashedly gender-specific infringement of the equal rights of its citizens."
The order:
8:14-cv-00356 #54 - Nebraska Memo and Order
To the extent the State's position is that it has an interest in promoting family stability only for those children who are being raised by both of their biological parents, the notion that some children should receive fewer legal protections than others based on the circumstances of their birth is not only irrational — it is constitutionally repugnant.
The State's emphasis on a biological connection creates a further discriminatory classification drawing a distinction between biological and adopted children.
The order also references one of my favorite judicial smackdowns in the history of this issue, Baskin v Bogan:
Indiana's government thinks that straight couples tend to be sexually irresponsible, producing unwanted children by the carload, and so must be pressured (in the form of governmental encouragement of marriage through a combination of sticks and carrots) to marry, but that gay couples, unable as they are to produce children wanted or unwanted, are model parents—model citizens really—so have no need for marriage. Heterosexuals get drunk and pregnant, producing unwanted children; their reward is to be allowed to marry. Homosexual couples do not produce unwanted children; their reward is to be denied the right to marry. Go figure.
Again and again, proponents of same-sex marriage bans simply cannot make a reasonable case for their personal beliefs to be law.