Free Republic

Tomorrow will be a busy law day. 1. Zimmerman Trial Opening Statement and Prosecution case– 9 a.m. We’ll have our live coverage, including video embed and live Twitter stream, as well as commentary during the day and in an end-of-day wrap up from Andrew Branca. If you haven’t seen his coverage so far, you’ve missed out. 2. Supreme Court — 10 a.m. We almost certainly will get one of the big 4 decisions from the Supreme Court — Gay Marriage/DOMA, Voting Rights Act, Affirmative Action. I’m guessing Voting Rights Act. We’ll have coverage as decisions are released starting at 10...

U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska publicly backed gay marriage on Wednesday, becoming the third Republican senator to do so as she spoke out ahead of potentially landmark rulings from the Supreme Court on the issue. Murkowski, 56, wrote in an essay posted on her Senate website that her decision was swayed, in part, by meeting a lesbian couple from Anchorage, one of whom was in the National Guard, who had adopted four children. "This first-class Alaskan family still lives a second-class existence," Murkowski said in her essay. Her announcement comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule...

With the Supreme Court only days away from major rulings on same-sex marriage, President Obama faces the prospect of having to make his own difficult decisions about the definition of wedlock. Gay rights advocates are already pressing Obama to immediately broaden the federal government’s recognition of legally married same-sex couples if the court strikes down a ban on providing federal benefits to them. The question for Obama turns on whether the federal government should extend full benefits to gay couples living in states that don’t recognize their marriages. Obama would face rare, concrete decisions on the politically combustible question of...

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy is trying again on immigration and gay rights. The Vermont Democrat filed an amendment to the Gang of Eight immigration bill on Tuesday that would allow gay U.S. citizens to petition their foreign spouses to become permanent residents. He had withdrawn the measure after an emotional debate during the committee markup, after several Democrats said they would vote against his amendment in order to preserve the overall bill. Republicans in the Gang of Eight had threatened to oppose the group’s bill if Democrats approved Leahy’s measure. “Seeking equal protection under our laws for the...

As Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. was struggling with how to cast the decisive vote in a 1986 Supreme Court case that would end up devastating the gay rights movement, he told his fellow justices that he had never met a homosexual. In truth, one of his four law clerks that term was gay. The atmosphere at the court today is far different from 1986, with a pace of change that may have surpassed that in the rest of society. Openly gay law clerks are now common in the chambers of both liberal and conservative justices. In January, Chief Justice...

(Robert Oscar Lopez) June 3, 2013 (thePublicDiscourse) - During the oral arguments about Proposition 8, Justice Anthony Kennedy referred to children being raised by same-sex couples. Since I was one of those children—from ages 2-19, I was raised by a lesbian mother with the help of her partner—I was curious to see what he would say. I also eagerly anticipated what he would say because I had taken great professional and social risk to file an amicus brief with Doug Mainwaring (who is gay and opposes gay marriage), in which we explained that children deeply feel the loss of...

'As a mayor, I know that legalising same-sex marriage has sharpened New York City’s competitive edge, because it has made us an even more attractive place to live and work.' Across Europe and the US support for same-sex marriage is growing, and for a simple reason: it is consistent with democracy's promise of equal rights for all people. As long as government is in the business of handing out marriage licences, all couples – regardless of their sexual orientation – deserve equal status in the eyes of the law. I believe that it is only a question of when –...

Some disappointed activists say they are yanking their support for the Democratic Party after Senate Democrats opposed a proposal in an immigration bill that would have allowed citizens to bring their foreign-born, same-sex spouses to the United States. Jonathan Lewis, a Miami philanthropist who donated more than $35,000 in 2012, has stopped giving and is urging others to do the same until President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats stop breaking promises to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. "Now is the time to stop investing in Democratic cowardice and stand proud by withholding donations until we see our...

The United States House of Representatives has issued the first-ever spousal ID to the partner of an openly homosexual Congressman, reports state. Philip Frank, the significant other of Representative Mark Pocan of Madison, Wisconsin was issued the ID recently, granting him recognition as being the spouse of the Congressman, as opposed to a guest. Frank and Pocan were “wed” in a Canadian ceremony in 2006, but the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) only recognizes marriage as being between a man and a woman. In the past, homosexual partners of federal lawmakers have been issued a designee ID as opposed...

ACLU: Time for 'Modern Family' gay couple to wed NEW YORK The ACLU is lobbying for the gay couple on "Modern Family" to get married. ACLU Action started a campaign to urge the show's producers to write a wedding episode for Mitchell and Cameron, fathers of an adopted child and one of three couples at the heart of the show. The ACLU says it is appealing to the fictional family to draw more attention to the real issue as it awaits Supreme Court decisions on two important marriage equality cases. "Mitch and Cam are a couple that America has come...

Illinois Republicans have just forced state party chair Pat Brady to resign because of his support for gay marriage. What is this, Alabama? Brady, rather famously, came out in support of gay marriage in January of this year, and even made phone calls to lawmakers urging them to support gay marriage legislation before the Illinois legislature. And now he’s politically-dead, killed by a Republican party so permeated with hate and intolerance that even in a moderate-Republican state like Illinois, the GOP just couldn’t stomach having a fag-lover as party chair. This is why I, an Illinois Republican, left my party...

Rhode Island on Thursday became the nation's 10th state to allow gay and lesbian couples to wed, as a 16-year effort to extend marriage rights in this heavily Roman Catholic state ended with the triumphant cheers of hundreds of gays, lesbians, their families and friends. Gov. Lincoln Chafee signed the bill into law on the Statehouse steps Thursday evening following a final 56-15 vote in the House. The first weddings will take place Aug. 1, when the law takes effect. "I've been waiting 32 years for this day, and I never thought it would come in my lifetime," said Raymond...

There's a growing partisan divide over whether gay Americans should be able to sponsor their partners for green cards The tide is clearly turning on gay rights, with same-sex marriage being legalized in states across America and several countries all over the world. But supporting gay rights can still be a political liability in Washington. According to Politico, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has said that he will introduce an amendment to the Gang of Eight's immigration reform bill that would allow gay American citizens to sponsor their foreign-born partners for green cards, just like straight couples can. That's a big...

During a law school debate on April 15, New York University professor of social and cultural analysis Judith Stacey argued against the nuclear family and monogamous relationships, and for decriminalizing polygamy. The debate, sponsored by the conservative Federalist Society and between Ms. Stacey and the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Ryan T. Anderson, was on “the defense of marriage.” Among Ms. Stacey’s wicked smart musings: “I say why should there be marriage at all;” “What should limit it to two and why should it be monogamous? Nothing in view gives the state that particular interest;” and “So I would agree that we...

Warren Jeffs must be banging his head against the walls of his prison cell these days. If he had only waited a few years before starting his Texas polygamy compound, he’d have ended up a civil rights trailblazer and Twitter-verse superstar, enduring nothing more than a little good-natured teasing from Jimmy Kimmel about his new show, “79 Wives and Counting.”Actually, that scenario’s not hard to imagine, given that the last vestiges of “repressive Christian morality” are being swept away by a tsunami of “progressive” dogma, its doctrines flowing from an absolute certainty that there are no absolutes — that all...

I am troubled by Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s crackdown on florist Barronelle Stutzman, owner of Arlene’s Flowers in Richland, for refusing to make a flower arrangement for a same-sex wedding. #I’m not arguing here against gay marriage. I voted for it. I’m not even sure that Stutzman has a legal right to refuse the business. Ferguson says that under Washington’s anti-discrimination statute, she doesn’t, and probably he’s right. She might, however, have a superior right under the state constitution, depending on how you interpret it. #The constitution has nothing in it about freedom from private discrimination. But Article 1, Section...

Rhode Island was set to become the 10th U.S. state to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples after the state Senate approved a gay marriage bill on Wednesday, in a major victory for gay rights activists. The state House had approved a similar measure in January, but the bill will now go back to the House for a new vote because it was amended. Gordon Fox, the speaker of the House, said in a statement that he will schedule that vote for May 2. "Pending the final vote by the House of Representatives, Rhode Island will no longer be an...

Delaware lawmakers introduced a bill Thursday that would legalize same-sex marriage in the state, with plans to have it signed into law by the end of June. The legislation, which the governor has pledged to sign if passed by lawmakers, was filed a little more than a year after Delaware first began recognizing same-sex civil unions. Critics of the civil union legislation warned at the time that it was simply a precursor to same-sex marriage in Delaware, which could soon join nine other states that have legalized gay marriage. Gov. Jack Markell and Attorney General Beau Biden, both Democrats, joined...

LONDON, U.K., April 10, 2013 (LifeSiteNews) – Academy Award-winning actor Jeremy Irons told HuffPost Live last week that he worries a redefinition of marriage to include same-sex couples could lead to abuses of the institution, including marriages between fathers and their sons. “It seems to me that now [gay activsts are] fighting for the name,” Irons told HuffPo Live host Josh Zepps. “I worry that it means somehow we debase, or we change, what marriage is. I just worry about that.” Zepps asked Irons about his views on gay ‘marriage’ during an interview about the Showtime series “The Borgias,” in...

It begins.There is no question that rank-and-file gay couples of all political stripes are sincere in their desire to enjoy the benefits and status that come with marriage. There is no sinister agenda at work in the issue of same-sex marriage among the masses. But the same cannot be said of the organized left who have always intended to use the issue of gay marriage as a vehicle to destroy the Christian Church and marginalize Christians. Faithfulness to the Bible and the Christian faith will very soon be declared bigotry by the media and a de facto civil rights violation...