Which means in Oklahoma, Virginia, Indiana, Utah, and Wisconsin, same-sex marriage is now 100% legal.
Oh, but there's more:
Other states under the jurisdiction of appeals courts that struck down the bans will also be affected, meaning the number of states with gay marriage is likely to quickly jump from 19 to 30.
The other states would be North Carolina, West Virginia, South Carolina, Wyoming, Kansas and Colorado.
The high court’s decision not to hear the cases was unexpected because most legal experts believed it would want to weigh in on a question of national importance that focuses on whether the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of equal treatment under the law means gay marriage bans were unlawful.
The issue could still return to the court, but the message sent by the court in declining to hear the matter would be a boost to gay marriage advocates involved in similar litigation in states that still have bans on the books.
The Sixth Circuit's decision pending on Kentucky's appeal is still forthcoming, but I can't imagine SCOTUS acting now until a Circuit Court finds same-sex marriage bans Constitutional somehow. At this point, without a ruling challenging this, SCOTUS will keep punting until all 50 states have marriage equality.
While this is good news for marriage equality, it still nonetheless proves once again that the SCOTUS Gang of Five are craven cowards when it comes to doing something that's actually good for the average American (instead of the 1%). They'd rather punt than put their imprint on something positive. Cowards. History will not be kind to the Roberts Court (unless it's in texbooks from the Texas Ministry of Truth, of course).
ReplyDelete