Massachusetts Marriage Law Stands

LARGESS, ROBERT P. v. SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT OF MA

04-420

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

2004 U.S. LEXIS 7727

November 29, 2004, Decided

JUDGES: Rehnquist, Stevens, O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Souter, Thomas, Ginsburg, Breyer.

OPINION: The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied.

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Here are the proposed Questions Presented that had been submitted to the Supreme Court.



They lost at the District Court, they lost on appeal, and now the Supreme Court has denied cert without comment.



Marriage in Massachusetts continues without restrictions against same-sex couples.

Societal Anxiety and Marriage

Newsobserver.com has an interesting brief interview with Duke University history professor Felicia Kornbluh on societal anxiety, marriage, political divisiveness and the barriers to reconciliation between those who voted for Bush and those who did not.



Prof. Kornbluh specializes in legal, political and gender history in the U.S.



Duke University News has a more in-depth related article.

Indecent and Hopeless

Karl Rove stated this morning on Fox News Sunday that Pres. Bush would once again push Congress for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Why? This was Rove's reasoning:

"If we want to have a hopeful and decent society, we ought to aim for the ideal, and the ideal is that marriage ought to be, and should be, a union of a man and a woman," Bush political aide Karl Rove told "Fox News Sunday."

So basically, I can't marry my girlfriend (of course, we live in Massachusetts and are planning our wedding, so I guess that actually makes her my fiancee) because to do so would destroy all hope and decency in American society.



Not that Karl Rove would ever do anything to violate the pedestal upon which he would have us place exclusively heterosexual marriage, such as a strategy of pushing constitutional amendments against gay marriage in those states with high concentrations of evangelical Christian voters in the hopes of bolstering their numbers at the polls during the election in which George Bush would coincidentally also be running for re-election. No, he would never dream of such a thing.



Hope and decency. Guess what - Massachusetts has it in truckloads, along with legalized marriage for gay couples. I'm just hoping for decent weather on a particular Saturday late next June...

Ellen Degeneres at Harvard Law

It seems that our esteemed colleagues across the river really do get everything. Ellen Degeneres will be speaking at Harvard Law School's Class Day, their annual event that occurs the day before commencement.



We get Bill O'Reilly, and they get Ellen? It's just not freaking fair. Well, at least we may be able to watch the event after the fact. The webcast of last year's event is still available for viewing at the HLS website.

Marriage Amendment Analysis

This hour on NPR's Talk of the Nation they are doing an in depth analysis of the 11 marriage amendments that passed in the states this week, as well as a larger discussion of the topic, and what's next for those on either side of the issue. NPR will have the archived audio available on the website later today.



Note that at this point NPR has the topic misidentified as the 25th anniversary of the hostage taking at the American embassy in Tehran. Hopefully that will be corrected shortly.

The Morning After - Massachusetts Races

I inadvertently posted this on my own blog. I'm leaving it up there, but here it is in its intended location:

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Despite the determination of gay marriage opponents to send a message to Beacon Hill by ousting those legislators who voted against the proposed amendment, they failed. Despite Mitt Romney's determination to increase the number of Republicans on the Hill, he failed.



Not a single Democratic incumbent lost. The Republicans lost three seats - one in the state senate and two in the house.



Massachusetts' delegation to Washington is still entirely Democratic. Particularly satisfying to me is the defeat of rabidly anti-gay (marriage and otherwise) Massachusetts Family Institute President Ron Crews, who was vying for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Incumbent Jim McGovern defeated Crews 71% to 29% in District 3, where most of my rather large family resides.



Congratulations should go out to Republican Jeff Perry, who retained his seat as State Rep. for 5th Barnstable. Jeff is also a second year student in NESL's evening division. I don't particularly agree with his politics, but good for him for winning 66% to 34%.