Appeals court: Same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional [Calif]

Orange County Register ^ | LISA LEFF

[South40]

SAN FRANCISCO – Supporters and opponents of California's ban on same-sex marriage were anxiously awaiting a federal appeals court decision Tuesday on whether the voter-approved measure violates the civil rights of gay men and lesbians.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that considered the question plans to issue its long-awaited opinion 18 months after a trial judge struck down the ban following the first federal trial to examine if same-sex couples have a constitutional right to get married.

The 9th Circuit does not typically give notice of its forthcoming rulings, and its decision to do so Monday reflects the intense interest in the case.

[Ohioan]

The absurdity of this offers one more example of a crushing reality. Much of America, today, is in the grips of a pervasive Collectivist/Egalitarian fantasy, which makes Lewis Carroll's description of "Wonderland," seem only stark realism by comparison.

No one who actually understands the concept of marriage-or for that matter the unsanctified procreational mating procedures of other warm blooded creatures--can possibly see this as anything but absurd. Human marriage customs & procedures reflect an understanding of the multi-generational function & purpose of a species. Marriage is our way to sanctify the process. Not surprisingly, therefore, unconsummated marriages have been subject to annulment, even in societies that explicitly outlaw every form of divorce.

Marriage has never been simply a way to sanctify friendship. Nor has anyone ever suggested that friends of the same sex marry, to prove their ties of a lifetime. And yet what else do people of the same sex have to even suggest that they should marry, today? Only an act that most other people find offensive--one or another of muscular acts intended to simulate feelings that may mimic sexual feelings ("sexual" relating not to the feelings, but to the division of the species into sexes, for procreation and continuity).

Again, is this whole agitation--and this Court decision--not totally in the theater of the absurd?!!

As for the demand for "equal rights?" Where is there any right for anyone to force society to jump down the rabbit hole with Alice? But then my metaphor fails, when put in juxta-position with my first paragraph.

William Flax

[Kazan]

I know it won’t, and I know I will hear all about judges Romney appointed in Massachussetts.

http://www.massresistance.org/docs/marriage/romney/record/

Romney Rewards one of the State's Leading Anti-Marriage Attorneys by Making him a Judge

Romney told the U.S. Senate on June 22, 2004, that the "real threat to the States is not the constitutional amendment process, in which the states participate, but activist judges who disregard the law and redefine marriage . . ." Romney sounds tough but yet he had no qualms advancing the legal career of one of the leading anti-marriage attorneys. He nominated Stephen Abany to a District Court. Abany has been a key player in the Massachusetts Lesbian and Gay Bar Association which, in its own words, is "dedicated to ensuring that the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision on marriage equality is upheld, and that any anti-gay amendment or legislation is defeated."

[Jeff Head]

I am sick of abject Judicial activism.

I am sick of liberals extending natural rights, given from God and enumerated in the Constitution, to behavior and ideology to advance their own causes and inclinations...and in an effort to overthrow the constitution to which they swore an oath to faithfully uphold and defend.

The American people, to avoid the hell of chaos and downfall and implosion such trends will inevitably lead to, simply must throw off the political class that has encumbered us and elect American statemen to office who revere and will hold inviolate the fundmanetal moral values upon which this nation and its constitution was founded.

And those are Christian principles and have defined the very reason why America has been so tolerant of so many who have come to these shores. but when those here want that tolerance to extend to the destruction of what has kept the peace, made us free, defined our prosperity and strength as a nation, that we cannot, nay we MUST not tolerate, but fight with every resource at our disposal.

America at the Crossroads of History
http://www.jeffhead.com/crossroads.htm

[Lmo56]

We all knew that the real showdown was going to be at SCOTUS - with an intermediate stop at the 9th Ciruit en banc before heading to DC.

A 2-1 in the Minor League split is nothing to worry about ...

I think that pro-gay marriage advocates in California erred in hitching their wagon to the courts on this one. They would have done better [for their cause] to try to repeal Prop 8 rather than forcing a SCOTUS showdown ...

The current makeup of SCOTUS is 6-3 [Catholic to Jewish]. Even Sotomayor is Catholic - and MANY HISPANIC Catholics consider the gay lifestyle to be a sin. So, she might end up with the conservatives on this one. Also, depending on orthodoxy, a few of the Jewish justices might also concur ...

The net effect of a SCOTUS decision may be that they rule that the Founders would NEVER have allowed gay marriage [what they considered to be a human abomination to be a "right"]. If they do so - then NO repeal of Prop 8 in Califoornia would be possible, since gay marriage would have already been ruled unconstitutional ...

[VanDeKoik]

If two guys can get married through this, then ALL “marriages” are legal!

INSANE!

[Bender2]

Re: ...A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals...

Could there have been... any other decision by these... Bozos?

Whoa, Bender! Don't ya know... you are giving us a bad name calling them 9th Circuit Jerks clowns?

Yeah, Bo-- We smokers... need to stick together!

If red Xs above go to http://uglicoyote.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/clown-car.png OR http://markarayner.com/images/bozo.jpg

That's a fact, pilgrim... that's a good fact!

SON-OF-A-BITCH? Once again, I pick the wrong day... to quit smoking!

Yeah, Steve-o--- But you are still drinking... ain't ya?

Yep and still sniffing... glue, Kermie!

Okay, okay-- Say good night... Gracie--

Okay, Bendy, what ever you want. "Good night... Gracie!"

Now, Bend, that was a long way for... a really cheap joke--

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

Thank God for that! Because I’ve always wanted to marry my car. </sarc>

[RetiredArmy]

This one man's opinion is that America is finished. We have turned our back on God. We have allowed the Bible and God to be thrown out of our schools, court houses, etc. We have allowed a bunch of trash talking, garbage spouting loud mouthed socialists to take over and bit by bit tear this nation down. God will punish sinful man at the end of the 1,000 year reign of Christ. But, He deals with nations right now. No sinful nation has ever remained. They are all destroyed. America is being dismantled bit by bit by sinful men, Satanic loving scum. Sex, drugs, porn are rampid in this nation. This nation produces more porn than any nation on earth. Just 70-80 years ago, Gone With The Wind had a hard time getting the word "damn" on a movie screen. Watch TV today and you hear the F word. All under "freedom of speech or expression." No, America is going down the drain. This country is as bad as Sodom and Gomorrah. We all know how that turned out.

People ask why the Bible does not have anything in it about America in prophesy. Ever wonder that the answer to that question is, combined with the Rapture of the Church, and the sin that is America now, that America just might not even exist in those times? Don't put your faith in things of this sinful world folks. Put your eyes UP. Look UP. Only by Him, through HIM, can you see the Father and get to Heaven and avoid this mess that is coming. Your choice.

[DNA.2012]

Do you really want the list of Extreme Left justices appointed by Republican Presidents?

[Sarah Barracuda]

We all knew this would happen..this court, like everything else run in this screwed up state, is run by far left whack jobs. Apparently my vote in 2008 meant NOTHING. We voted to have marriage between one man and one woman and what happens, the leftist fruitcakes get all upset and overturn the decision. If my entire family didn’t live in this state I would have left a long time ago. Ronald Reagan wouldn’t even recognize it anymore if he were still alive.

[TheOldLady]

Click the pic       Thank you, JoeProBono

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[DNA.2012]

The concern with advice like that is it tells good people to surrender hope and stop fighting.

I cannot do either.

Good changes can yet be made, and making them is the Christian path.

[ScottinVA]

It will soon be ruled illegal for church pastors to speak out against this type of abomination.

[fwdude]

One good effect of this ruling - and this is just my opinion - is that this is going to have an energizing effect among those who feel that their rights to vote on this issue have been spat upon by unelected elites. I can see an even larger margin of victory in NC and MN where the people will soon be voting on their own marriage amendments. And I can see WA state’s legislation and ME’s homo-”marriage” referendum going down in flames by voters disgusted by this usurpation of power.

[MaxMax]

So is immediate family members marrying unconstitutional also?
Absurd you say CA? Mothers/Daughters, Fathers/sons, brothers/brothers, sisters/sisters?

Whats wrong CA, you perverts want equal rights for all dontcha?

[SoFloFreeper]

Let’s be clear:

ELECTED LEGISLATORS *DO NOT* WRITE LAWS.

VOTERS *MAY NOT* VOTE FOR LAWS.

*ONLY* FEDERAL UNELECTED JUDGES MAY CREATE LAWS.

Kindling for Revolution?

[RetiredArmy]

No it does not tell people to give up. We should never “give up.” But, this country is so far gone, there is nothing to bring it back. Do you REALLY think that America is going to suddenly be back in the black and out of the red financially? Really? I can tell you that men are not going to fix this mess. Men MADE this mess. And men who seek to dominate the world are going to keep at it. If the republicans continue on the path they are, putting in the likes of Romney, then where is the chance of making a change? None. You have your choices to make friend. I have made mine. And in those I am completely satisfied.

[Revel]

Did anyone ever stop to think that according to modern judges then on the day the country was formed that the whole country was unconstitutional. And we stumbled along for over 200 years with all these unconstitutional laws, until these modern judges finally get to fix things. Now anyone who believes that is an idiot. And these judges are political activists who twist the law and the constitution.

[In Maryland]

I am slowly making my way through the decision - which, on its face, is not without merit (IMHO), in that California has stripped the right to use the name marriage without any change in underlying responibilities or rights.

However, there is one significant right of marriage same-sex couples should NOT enjoy - though the decision specifically says they do:

"Enjoy the presumption of parentage as to a child born of either partner"

First, I believe that the court is in error - I know of no state where a married woman enjoys the presumption of parentage to any child of her husband. If the child is born by a woman other than the wife it is clearly a child to whom the wife should not have parental obligation (leaving aside a possible argument on the use of surrogate mothers). But, in pre-DNA days when natural fatherhood could be difficult to ascertain, there was and still is a presumption that the husband is the father of a child born to his wife.

This becomes ridiculous on it's face in a same sex marriage - it is biologically impossible that a same sex spouse has a natural parental relationship with a child born to their partner.

Therefore, same-sex couples should be denied the presumption of parentage (except in cases of adoption) - and this marks the difference in law between a domestic-partnership and a marriage.

[Williams]

I really wonder why you would say something so empty, as to ask do I really want a list of left wing judges appointed by republican presidents?

As if you have no realization that republican presidents appointed vastly more conservatives and dems vastly more liberals.

One small example being the only conservatives and one moderate on the US Supreme Court being republican nominees. All dem appointees being strict liberals.