Posted on 07/26/2006 8:05:00 AM PDT by goodnesswins
Washington Supreme Court has issued ruling upholding Washington State's BAN on Gay Marriage
Excellent! Such good news today!
Take a look at the Seattle PI. The Seattle sissies are freaking out. They have an on-line poll running. 62.5% pissed at the ruling, 32.8% approve.
We are gonna see and hear some interesting things in the next few weeks. Suburban Republican leg. candidates were just handed a campaign issue they'll be able to win on.
Can you hear me now, cybercowboy777?
IOW, "Keep on fighting, Q warriors. We're sorry, but had no choice on this one, or we'd get in real trouble ourselves. Hope you understand. Hugs & kisses."
Note that the ban was upheld by the smallest of margins: a 5-4 vote.
Another reminder of the importance of electing conservatives judges or electing representatives who will appoint conservative judges.
I'm shocked.
Pleasantly, but I'd about given up on the Court to do the right thing here.
Me too. I was hoping they'd make the right decision, but wasn't confident.
Not surprised. Reading the analysis, it goes back and forth.
Here's an interesting tidbit...
A careful description of the asserted fundamental liberty interest is required, and the Court has noted that [b]y extending constitutional protection to an asserted right or liberty interest, we, to a great extent, place the matter outside the arena of public debate and legislative action. We must therefore exercise the utmost care whenever we are asked to break new ground in this field . . . ..
Fundamental liberty interests include the right to marry, to have children, to direct the education and upbringing of ones children, to marital privacy, to use contraception, to bodily integrity, and to abortion.
Wasn't Washington one of the states which enacted a gay marriage ban in 2004? Or was that Oregon? There were 11 or 12 states which enacted such bans by initiative in 2004, and I can't recall if Washington was one of them.
The real surprise here is that Alexander voted with the majority to uphold DOMA.
IOW, we aint' gonna pee all over the people like the Massah-chews-its Spleen Quart did.
Like the Dems said after the last election....Morals??....They won the election on morals?? Don't people know that "It's the Economy, stupid?"
The Pendulum swings!! Promoting homosexuality in the schools was probably the straw that broke the camels back.
Sanity BUMP!
5 - 4 decision.
By the hair of their chinny-chin-chins.
HIP! HIP! HOORAY!
I could see WA or OR (probably both) enacting some sort of civil union statute by the initiative process, however. No doubt that, or a gay marriage initiative, will appear soon, but its way too late for this year's ballot.
>I honestly believe that had the gays gone for civil unions instead of gay marriage there would now be a majority of states permitting civil unions.<
For those wanting to preserve the sanctity of one man - one woman marriage, I believe that if they had gone for civil unions, they would have been provided with the slippery slope eventually arriving at the gay marriage now banned in Washington State.
These individual opinions are well worth reading as they paint a pretty good picture of the thought processes (or lack thereof) of our state justices.
While the fact that three of the four dissenting were women may or may not mean anything, the two (Bridge and Fairhurst) who wrote opinions show that there was a lot of "feeling" going on but not much thinking. Fairhurst's writing, in particular, is just a mess. It starts out with the erroneous statement that heterosexuals in Washington have the right to mary anyone they choose and goes down hill from there.
We're lucky to have managed a 5-4 decision.
It's an election year and there are some consrvatives challenging liberal incumbents on the court. Politics as usual.
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