Posted on 10/22/2014 4:54:50 AM PDT by GIdget2004
Puerto Rico’s ban on same-sex marriage remains in place after a federal judge dismissed a challenge to the ban Tuesday, saying the U.S. Supreme Court established a precedent four decades ago.
U.S. District Judge Juan M. Pérez-Giménez said in his decision that by dismissing an appeal in Baker vs. Nelson, a 1971 case in which two men sought to marry in Minnesota, the Supreme Court bound all lower courts to assume bans on same-sex marriage do not violate the Constitution. The high court could choose to overrule itself but has not, he said.
Pérez-Giménez went on to say that legalizing same-sex marriage would open the door to challenges that could legalize polygamous and incestuous marriages. “Ultimately,” he wrote, “the very survival of the political order depends upon the procreative potential embodied in traditional marriage.”
He dismissed the challenge with prejudice, meaning the case cannot be refiled.
Puerto Rico, a United States territory, is bound by U.S. law.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
It's ALL politics.
Now the SCOTUS can take the cases.
Why didn’t every other lawyer trying to enforce bans NOT have this argument handy for cases in other states where bans were thrown out?
open the door to challenges that could legalize polygamous and incestuous marriages.
WHAT??!!! A federal judge that gets it? Who’da thunk it?
It would not be PC to impose the same rules on Puerto Rico that the liberals would impose on state.
Thank God for a decent judge.
Precedent, revered by the left, seems to indicate SCOTUS should uphold the law. Gee, you would think JOURNALISTS would have reported about this before a judge had to point it out in a ruling.
...bingo.
That is where the agitators want this, in SCOTUS. There, no doubt in another emanation from a penumbra, the court will find same sex marriage to be a Constitutional “right.” This will assure, just as Roe v. Wade has already, that the moral underminings of the nation are further eroded. It will also pressure churches to to “evolve” in order to avoid civil rights cases.
God help our children and grandchildren.
Ping
They did. In every case I e seen, at least, the lawyers defending same-sex marriage bans have made the Baker v. Nelson argument. The major problem with the argument is that the decision in Baker, while technically a ruling on the merits (with preferential effect), was a brief, summary order that was made without any briefing or oral argument by the parties. Tough to win on that argument alone.
“Now the SCOTUS can take the cases.”
Not yet. This ruling will be appealed to the First Circuit Court of Appeals. Puerto Rico is in District 1, where every state has legal same-sex marriage. This ruling will almost certainly not hold.
But if the 1st circuit overturns this judge, hopefully Puerto Rico won’t surrender like so many gutless RINOs have on this issue.
"Recent affirmances of same-gender marriage seem to suffer from a peculiar inability to recall the principles embodied in existing marriage law. Traditional marriage is “exclusively [an] opposite-sex institution . . . inextricably linked to procreation and biological kinship,” Windsor, 133 S. Ct. at 2718 (Alito, J., dissenting). Traditional marriage is the fundamental unit of the political order. And ultimately the very survival of the political order depends upon the procreative potential embodied in traditional marriage. Those are the well-tested, well-proven principles on which we have relied for centuries. The question now is whether judicial “wisdom” may contrive methods by which those solid principles can be circumvented or even discarded". - Judge Juan Perez Gimenez
Having a split between the circuits is not a prerequisite to SCOTUS taking a case, and a split between the circuits is not a guarantee of SCOTUS taking the case.
“But if the 1st circuit overturns this judge, hopefully Puerto Rico won’t surrender like so many gutless RINOs have on this issue.”
If any state or territory were to defy the Circuit Court and stand up Traditional Marriage, it would be Puerto Rico as it is the. It’s solidly Catholic.
I could envision a situation where all the states and territories would have gay marriage, except for Puerto Rico.
With that situation, Pro Traditional Marriage Americans could move to Puerto Rico to escape gay marriage.
I live in Puerto Rico. You are right in this regard. This is, of course, being widely discussed in Puerto Rico talk shows and such. Even the most liberal, pro-gay-marriage politicians acknowledge that legislating in favor of gay marriage would be political suicide. They are being asked outright if they’re going to pass legislation now that the district court tossed the ball to them and they say it would be useless. And the political party currently in power (closely aligned with the Democrats) could very well do it if they wanted it. But again, in this easily Evangelized island, they would be readily tossed out of power.
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