Breaking: Court Of Appeals Unanimously Affirms Same-Sex Marriage Bans Are Unconstitutional In Two States
A federal court of appeals has ruled that same-sex marriage bans in Wisconsin and Indiana indeed are unconstitutional, affirming lower court decisions.Â
The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has just handed down a ruling that finds same-sex marriage bans in Wisconsin and Indiana are unconstitutional. The ruling affirms lower court decisions of U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb in Wolf v. Walker, and U.S. District Court Judge Young’s in Baskin vs. Bogan, Fujii v. State of Indiana, and Lee v. Pence.
Those cases were before a 7th Circuit three-judge panel just nine days ago, and were decided unanimously today.
In a scathing rebuke to the stes, Posner wrote that the idea “that same-sex marriage will harm heterosexual marriage or children” is “unsupported conjecture” and insufficient “to justify discrimi-nation on the basis of sexual orientation.” He added that “the grounds advanced by Indiana and Wisconsin for their discriminatory policies are not only conjec-tural; they are totally implausible.”
Posner also noted that the “states’ concern with the problem of unwanted children is valid and important, but their solution is not ‘tailored’ to the problem, because by denying marital rights to same-sex couples it reduces the incentive of such couples to adopt unwanted children and impairs the welfare of those children who are adopted by such couples.”
He also thrashed Wisconsin’s argument, “that the ban on same-sex marriage is the outcome of a democratic process—the enactment of a constitutional ban by popular vote.”
But homosexuals are only a small part of the state’s population—2.8 percent, we said, grouping transgendered and bisexual persons with homosexuals. Minorities trampled on by the democratic process have recourse to the courts; the recourse is called constitutional law.
Posner also struck down Wisconsin’s claim “that ‘homosexuals are politically powerful out of proportion to their numbers.’ No evidence is presented by the state to support this contention.”
Chris Geidner at Buzzfeed points to one passage in particular from today’s ruling, written by Judge Richard Posner.
“Our pair of cases is rich in detail but ultimately straightforward to decide,” wrote Posner, who had challenged a state attorney by insisting the bans were brought as a result of anti-gay “hate.”
“The challenged laws discriminate against a minority defined by an immutable characteristic, and the only rationale that the states put forth with any conviction— that same-sex couples and their children don’t need marriage because same-sex couples can’t produce children, intended or unintended—is so full of holes that it cannot be taken seriously.”
Geidner adds:
Posner, who was rough in his questioning of the lawyers for both states at oral arguments, concludes: “The discrimination against same-sex couples is irrational, and therefore unconstitutional even if the discrimination is not subjected to heightened scrutiny, which is why we can largely elide the more complex analysis found in more closely balanced equal-protection cases.â€
The 40-page decision can be read here:
Â
Image: The first same-sex couple to marry in Indiana, Jake Miller and Craig Bowen. Photo via Hoosiers Unite for Marriage on Facebook.Â
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New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan heard arguments in court Tuesday morning without the jury present after prosecutors in District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office accused Donald Trump of violating his gag order ten times, via posts on his Truth Social account.
Judge Merchan did not rule from the bench, but is expected to announce his ruling possibly as early as later Tuesday. Prosecutors asked for Trump to be held in contempt, and outlined four possible responses. Merchan refused one response but agreed three were possible.
Among them, Merchan might fine Trump and issue a stern warning that could threaten jail time if he violates the gag order in the future.
From the bench, Merchan had directed attorneys to create a timeline of events to show if Trump was reacting to what the ex-president’s attorneys called “attacks.”
“We’re gonna take one at a time, otherwise it’s going to get really confusing,” Judge Merchan said to Trump lead attorney Todd Blanche, as Lawfare managing editor Tyler McBrien reports. McBrien noted the judge “wants to get the timeline of these posts, reposts, and replies clear.”
RELATED: Fox News Host Suggests Trump ‘Force’ Court to Throw Him in Jail – by Quoting Him
Trump’s attorneys appeared to suggest if his posts are “political” they should not be subjected to the gag order, which bars Trump from making “public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses concerning their potential participation in the investigation or in this criminal proceeding.”
“Blanche says that the witnesses are making money, documentaries, TV interviews about Trump, all while Trump is gagged and threatened with jail if he responds,” McBrien also reported. “Merchan wants to get into what was actually said rather than interpret and ‘read between the lines.'”
Blanche earlier had insisted Trump was aware of what the gag order requires.
“‘Just to set the record very straight and clear: President Trump does know what the gag order’ allows him to do and not do,” MSNBC contributor Adam Klasfeld reported.
One of the larger issues discussed appears to be Fox News segments made by host Jesse Watters. One aired hours before then-juror number two asked to be excused, saying they no longer felt they could be impartial.
MSNBC’s Katie Phang posted this exchange between the judge and Trump’s lead attorney:
“Now, Merchan asks Blanche about what Jesse Watters, in fact, said.
Blanche: No.
Merchan: “So your client manipulated what was said and put it in quotes?
Blanche: I wouldn’t say it was a manipulation.
Merchan: This isn’t a repost at all. Your client had to type it out. Use the shift-key and all.”
It did not go well for Trump and his legal team.
At one point Judge Merchan told Blanche, “You’re losing all credibility.” McBrien reports when Merchan said that, “there was an audible gasp from the press.”
Former U.S. Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal weighed in:
Very very ominous for a judge to say Trump’s lawyer has lost all credibility with the court. https://t.co/yAKk5HzFby
— Neal Katyal (@neal_katyal) April 23, 2024
“This isn’t quite like watching a full blown car accident, but it’s certainly like watching a fender bender,” McBrien also noted.
“This is going very badly for Trump already,” reported Courthouse News’ Erik Uebelacker. “Judge Merchan is losing his patience with Blanche, who can’t seem to prove that any of Trump’s attacks are ‘responses.'”
Attorney George Conway went further: “Blanche is flailing. This is painful to watch. Merchan is cutting him to shreds.”
Continuing, Conway wrote (not in quotation marks) Merchan said: “I’ve asked you several times to show me the post that the defendant was responding to. You haven’t done so once.”
He called the judge’s remark “BRUTAL.”
READ MORE: ‘Rally Behind MAGA’: Trump Advocates Courthouse ‘Protests’ Nationwide
“Basically, Blanche is pretty much arguing there’s a ‘running for president’ exception to the gag order that has been specifically directed at the man running for defendant,” Conway adds. “Merchan now getting pissed at Blanche’s unresponsiveness and evasiveness.”
Klasfeld also characterized the exchanges as “brutal.”
“Merchan says he’s going to ‘reserve decision on this,’ after brutal arguments for the defense.”
Trump has been criminally indicted in four separate cases and is facing a total of 88 felony charges, including 34 in this New York criminal trial for alleged falsification of business records to hide payments of hush money to an adult film actress and one other woman, in an alleged effort to suppress their stories and protect his 2016 presidential campaign, which could be deemed election interference.
Image via Shutterstock
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake is promoting a conspiracy theory suggesting Hillary Clinton wants to assassinate her. Her remarks came just one day before she lost her attempt to have the Supreme Court review what some have called her conspiracy-theory fueled lawsuit about electronic voting machines.
“Lake, who filed the lawsuit during her failed campaign for governor in 2022, challenged whether the state’s electronic voting machines assured ‘a fair and accurate vote.’ Two lower courts dismissed the suit, finding that Lake and former Republican state lawmaker Mark Finchem had not been harmed in a way that allowed them to sue,” CNN reported Monday.
Also on Monday Law&Crime reported that when she filed her lawsuit, a Dominion Voting Systems spokesperson “rejected Lake’s cybersecurity claim, telling Law&Crime it was ‘implausible and conspiratorial.'”
Democracy Docket, founded by top Democratic elections attorney Marc Elias, called it “the end of the road for a conspiratorial lawsuit,” and Lake and Fincham, “election deniers.”
READ MORE: ‘Old and Tired and Mad’: Trump’s Demeanor in Court Detailed by Rachel Maddow
Lake, a far-right conspiracy theorist who has yet to concede the 2022 election, which she lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs, has a history of pushing exaggerated and baseless claims.
On Sunday, as MeidasTouch Network reported, Lake promoted an old, anti-Clinton conspiracy theory but twisted it to try to make it appear she was in danger from former U.S. Secretary of State and former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Lake on Newsmax listened to a clip of Secretary Clinton calling Trump’s fondness for Russian President Vladimir Putin a “bromance,” and saying the ex-president is “just gaga over Putin, because Putin does what he would like to do: kill his opposition, imprison his opposition, drive, you know, journalists and others into exile, rule without any check or balance.”
Then Lake promoted a thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory by responding, “Oh, boy. Oh, that’s really rich coming from a woman like Hillary Clinton, who’s, how many of her friends have just like, mysteriously died or committed suicide?”
“I mean, honestly, that’s rich of her. What President Trump wants is to root out the corruption and deliver our government back to We The People and she looks very nervous. She talked about her friend Mark Elias, Mark Elias has meddled in in his and his cohorts have meddled in the elections.”
She called Democratic policies, “destructive, deadly and frankly, in some ways, diabolical,”and added, “it’s almost comical that Hillary Clinton is talking about Trump wanting to kill his opponents.”
READ MORE: ‘Election Interference’ and ‘Corruption’: Experts Explain Trump Prosecution Opening Argument
“I just want to say as I’m as I’m speaking about this topic, I want everyone out there to know that my brakes on my car have recently been checked and they work. I’m not suicidal. And Hillary, I don’t mean any harm to you. Please don’t send your henchmen out to me. We understand what you’re about. ”
Watch below or at this link.
.@HillaryClinton is talking about Trump wanting to kill his opponents.
We call that projection.
While on the subject of Hillary, I want everyone out there to know that the brakes on my car work just fine. I’m not suicidal.
I’m very happy to be alive & working to save Arizona… pic.twitter.com/Mhj84g5bVu
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) April 22, 2024
READ MORE: ‘Rally Behind MAGA’: Trump Advocates Courthouse ‘Protests’ Nationwide
MSNBC top host Rachel Maddow, inside Manhattan’s Criminal Courthouse on Monday declared Donald Trump appeared “old and tired and mad,” as she delivered observations about the ex-president on trial for 34 counts of falsification of business records alleged in the alleged pursuit of election interference to protect his 2016 presidential run.
Trump “seems considerably older, and he seems annoyed. Resigned, maybe, angry. he seems like a man who’s miserable to be here,” the award-winning journalist told MSNBC viewers Monday afternoon.
“I’m no body language expert,” she conceded, “and this is just my observation. He seemed old and tired and mad.”
The New York Times’ Susanne Craig, from inside the courthouse Monday morning reported: “Trump is struggling to stay awake. His eyes were closed for a short period. He was jolted awake when Todd Blanche, his lawyer, nudged him while sliding a note in front of him.”
The Biden campaign was only too happy to pick up and report Craig’s observation, adding “feeble.”
A feeble and tired Donald Trump once again falls asleep in court pic.twitter.com/ShcnxYI8jH
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) April 22, 2024
Former Obama senior advisor David Axelrod, pointing to his piece at The Atlantic, wrote of Trump: “He has charmed & conned, schemed & marauded his way through life. He was bred that way. But the weariness & vulnerability captured in courtroom images betray a growing sense in Trump that he could wind up as the thing his old man most reviled:
A loser.”
Watch Maddow’s remarks below or at this link.
Maddow: Trump seems old and tired and mad pic.twitter.com/kQuHrBo4v1
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 22, 2024
READ MORE: ‘Election Interference’ and ‘Corruption’: Experts Explain Trump Prosecution Opening Argument
‘Election Interference’ and ‘Corruption’: Experts Explain Trump Prosecution Opening Argument
‘Old and Tired and Mad’: Trump’s Demeanor in Court Detailed by Rachel Maddow
‘I’m Not Suicidal’: Kari Lake Pushes Hillary Clinton Murder Conspiracy Theory
‘Cutting Him to Shreds’: ‘Pissed’ Judge Tells Trump’s Attorney ‘You’re Losing All Credibility’
‘Cutting Him to Shreds’: ‘Pissed’ Judge Tells Trump’s Attorney ‘You’re Losing All Credibility’
‘I’m Not Suicidal’: Kari Lake Pushes Hillary Clinton Murder Conspiracy Theory
‘Old and Tired and Mad’: Trump’s Demeanor in Court Detailed by Rachel Maddow
‘Election Interference’ and ‘Corruption’: Experts Explain Trump Prosecution Opening Argument
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