Today the Supreme Court did something very significant by deciding NOT to do something. For those not following the march toward marriage equality, this may be confusing.
The Supreme Court decided not to review cases decided by Federal Appeals Courts and in deciding not to review these cases, the stays on the decisions are now lifted.
From USA today...
"Federal appeals courts already had struck down bans against gay
marriage in five states — Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and
Wisconsin — and those rulings will be allowed to stand. Colorado,
Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming are in
the same judicial circuits, so they must abide by those appeals court
rulings, too. Nineteen other states and the District of Columbia already permit same-sex marriage."
These same federal courts have jurisdiction over multiple states so while their ruling may have applied specifically to a ban in a particular case and a particular state, bans in other states are implicated. In refusing to review the cases, the Supreme Court seems to say that there was no legal issue or procedural error that justified their intervention. In all, the states impacted total 30 by present rulings that the Supreme Court has chosen not to review.
District court rulings in other regions are pending. Some presume that these are conservative courts and will rule against marriage equality. But others, and I am one, feel that the justices will review the cases on merit. Other conservative districts have ruled against marriage bans based on merit and constitutional grounds. Now, the Supreme Court has made a statement. They found no reason to intervene based on legal issues or procedural issues. What legal ground could another district find that the others have not explored? What procedural issue could be discovered that no other has found?
http://www.freedomtomarry.org/states/ provides up to date information on what is happening.
Basically as I see it, the argument against marriage equality is that there is a bogeyman under the bed that certain people are sure God sees and certain God following people see under the bed. But once described and once scrutinized, the bogeyman disappears to all but the most imaginative God creative engineers.
I hope people stop imagining the bogeyman. He ain't there folks.
This court has finally made a good decision. By allowing the decision to be "made by the states" rather than dictated by the highest court in the land, it essentially makes it impossible for those who disagree to have a leg to stand on in the end. Roe v Wade is still debated because the states were not allowed to come to terms with the issue in their own time. As one state after another realizes they cannot legally justify discriminating against one group of people, each state will recognize the fight is indeed futile and the issue will die in due time, never to be raised again. I am glad they kept their noses out of it for now.
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