Court weighs overturning gay marriage bans in three southern states

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana - this will be fun to watch. They might end up doing what some counties here in FL currently do - not marry anyone at all. You know, like the segregationists back in the day that rather closed the schools than allow a black kid in. Discrimination at any cost. But overall, it's just amusing to see the dead-enders squirm.

On the upside, Rick Perry will likely soon be able to finally marry his still secret boyfriend.

Court weighs overturning gay marriage bans in three southern states

(Reuters) - A U.S. federal appeals court on Friday appeared receptive to arguments in favor of striking down same-sex marriage bans in the conservative southern states of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Two of three judges on a 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel in New Orleans expressed skepticism over the bans, with Judge Patrick Higginbotham noting a "sea change" on opinion over gay rights in recent decades and questioning why states wanting to incentivize procreation would allow sterile opposite-sex couples but not same-sex couples to marry.

After it was noted that Mississippi was unlikely to change its position on gay marriage in the near future, Higginbotham, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan, appeared to reference that state's history of racism.

"The words 'will Mississippi change its mind?' have resonated in these halls before," he said.

Judge James Graves, an appointee of President Barack Obama, also expressed discomfort with the bans in pointed questions to attorneys defending them, while Judge Jerry Smith, a Reagan appointee, cited precedent guiding the court to uphold the bans despite the likelihood of some people being harmed by them.

Four regional federal appeals courts have struck down gay marriage bans following a Supreme Court decision in June 2013 expanding federal recognition of same-sex marriages, while the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in November upheld bans in four states.

That ruling created a split among appeals courts and increased the likelihood the U.S. Supreme Court will take up the matter during the current term ending in June.

The Supreme Court met privately on Friday and took no action on five pending cases that could lead to an overarching ruling on whether states may ban gay marriage. The high court could still decide to hear the cases in the current term.

Proponents of the bans argue that states have the right to decide who can marry and that it is in the states' interests to promote marriage between a man and a woman.

U.S. district judges in Texas and Mississippi last year ruled those states' bans on gay marriage unconstitutional because they denied the couples equal protection under the law. Enforcement of those decisions are on hold pending the appeals.

In September, a U.S. district judge upheld Louisiana's gay marriage ban.

[decocker 7,198]

see, the terrorists are winning.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

see, the terrorists are winning.

Oh yes, the terror of equality and non-discrimination.

[Not a Tailor 1,370]

Oh man, I hope this moves fast. It would be nice to be married to my wife by the time I live there.

(note: I am married. To my wife. But the state of Texas chooses to stick its fingers in its ears and sing the sesame street theme rather than pay any mind to my marriage certificate)

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

It is all but over. SCOTUS will get off easy. All they got to do is refuse to hear any appeals.

[elmcitymaven 9,711]

Oh man, I hope this moves fast. It would be nice to be married to my wife by the time I live there.

(note: I am married. To my wife. But the state of Texas chooses to stick its fingers in its ears and sing the sesame street theme rather than pay any mind to my marriage certificate)

My uncle and his partner of 25 years gave up waiting on Texas last year and got hitched in DC last year. It was something my sainted and sadly departed Texan grandmother had wanted to see for a long time.

[Not a Tailor 1,370]

My uncle and his partner of 25 years gave up waiting on Texas last year and got hitched in DC last year. It was something my sainted and sadly departed Texan grandmother had wanted to see for a long time.

I'm sorry she didn't get to see it.

We ended up eloping to Boston for our marriage.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

It is all but over. SCOTUS will get off easy. All they got to do is refuse to hear any appeals.

They've just done that in the case of Florida where marriage equality is now reality. I don't see that they'll touch this unless they have to.

[Rob L 3,811]

see, the terrorists are winning.

I know how they are doing it : "Gay Bomb"

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2013/10/the-us-military-once-proposed-a-gay-bomb/

One doesn’t commonly associate the slogan “make love not war” with the US military. Indeed, the United States military is feared and formidable precisely because it has proven so effective at conceptualising clever and innovative ways to search, find and destroy, often with the simple push of a button. However, in a departure from these hostile traditions, in 1994 the Wright Laboratory, part of the US Air Force, produced a three page proposal for a “gay bomb”.

Documentation obtained by the Sunshine Project, an anti-biological weapons non-governmental organisation, found that the Ohio-based Wright Lab requested a six-year, $US7.5 million grant to create a variety of non-lethal weapons. The bluntly titled project, called “Harassing, Annoying and ‘Bad Guy’ Identifying Chemicals” reads like a bawdy proposal penned by a Bond Villian- Auric Goldfinger perhaps?

It proposed a bomb “that contained a chemical that would cause enemy soldiers to become gay, and to have their units break down because all their soldiers became irresistibly attractive to one another”. While the laboratory also came up with similarly questionable ideas, such as bad-breath bombs, flatulence bombs and bombs designed to attract swarms of stinging insects to enemy combatants, one has to admit that the gay bomb is certainly the most novel.

[LibCampFireClub 635]

Good time for that keystone pipeline

[Not a Tailor 1,370]

Good time for that keystone pipeline

Hey, troll, what up? What's this got to do with anything in this thread?

[VOL 425]

I hope Texas never allows Gay Marriage

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

Hey, troll, what up? What's this got to do with anything in this thread?

Haters gonna hate.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I hope Texas never allows Gay Marriage

Why?

[Not a Tailor 1,370]

I hope Texas never allows Gay Marriage

I hope that fuzzy kittens sit on every desk I ever see and yawn at me adorably, asking for petting.

It looks like we're both going to be disappointed.