Posted on 06/28/2013 12:10:43 PM PDT by ColdOne
DETROIT (AP) A federal judge on Friday blocked Michigan's ban on domestic partner benefits for employees who work for public schools or local governments, saying state lawmakers simply wanted to punish gays and lesbians.
U.S. District Judge David Lawson said plaintiffs who have lost benefits or been forced to buy expensive private health insurance have made a "plausible claim" that the law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The decision came nearly a year after he heard arguments in the lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.
(Excerpt) Read more at bigstory.ap.org ...
Here we go. We now get to see the lower courts apply the majority opinion’s “logic.” Ugh.
We also don’t give it to people in incest relationships, polygamists, and people that love their dogs a little too much.
Let’s not start on that pesky ban on having sex with kids. Should we start apologizing to the pedos for “punishing” them too?
Dear Lord ...
Let the judgment unfold, sooner rather than later.
Interesting...
CWII can start in Michigan, would be a nicely counterintuitive.
Even though the Supreme Court ruling only applied to federal benefits, you know that every liberal federal court judge in the nation will be falling all over themselves to claim it applies to states or localities if for no other reason that to get another test case in front of the Supreme Court so they can get their real goal of a constitutional right to gay marriage pulled out of some orifice of the court like Abortion was. So gay marriage will be shoved down the throats of states who have constitutional amendements baring it and the voters appose it by double digit margins.
Looks like you have an argument to settle with the “Libertarians”.
Rapists not being treated fairly under "Equal Protection Clause"
Where does it end? Can we no longer have Laws that are used to punish deviant behavior in all forms?
NO LAW applies except to those who violate it, so this argument is bullshit on its face!
DOMA wasn’t about banning *any* behavior. It was about *not* conferring the benefits to a class. No one’s rights were injured.
So that took two days. I thought it would take at least a year.
I figure this is just another step at breaking these civil service employees benefits funding even more.They’ll be fighting over the crumbs soon.
That happened fast. Kennedy used equal protection in his reasoning. Only a matter of time before every court in the nation parrots the DOMA ruling and states without gay marriage are forced to bend the knee. After all, if homosexuals in states WITH gay marriage were denied equal protection, what of the plight of those in states without gay marriage? Isn’t it worst?
The DOMA ruling is a cancer that will spread.
Yup.
We’re going to see a sweeping ruling within a few years, I’ll bet. The homosexualists will attack from every state they can, portraying the current status quo as an irreparable mess that needs a clean resolution from the court.
“This legal patchwork mess is hurting our children, and it must be resolved so that this needless damage to our children is ended!” is what they will claim, knowing that Justice Kennedy will grab-onto that line of argument with no hesitation. Kennedy has already practically hand-delivered an embroidered invitation to the homosexualists to pursue this line of argument. We all know the outcome.
City clerks in the constitutional states will resist, except for probably in urban centers (New Orleans, Atlanta, Austin, etc), and the media will portray these brave folks as backwards, unconstitutional, redneck bigots. In contrast, we’ll be shown festive scenes of fags dancing in the streets, kissing, flaunting, crying, etc.
The fuse is lit. I don’t know how to stop the whole thing from blowing up.
Oddly, the same argument doesn’t apply if what you like is to smoke. Smokers are treated like second-class citizens by the government, and the courts are fine with that — no argument against “equal treatment”.
cool.. i can run my ad again: “roommate wanted: rent, utilities, internet and insurance included”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.