Should Every Same-Sex Couple Who Wants To Marry Sue For Their Rights?
Now that it seems like the Supreme Court is paving a way for same-sex marriage, should every same-sex couple who wants to marry sue for their rights? One Drexel University Associate Professor of Law says yes. One veteran LGBT journalist suggests maybe — or maybe not.
In “Windsor Same-Sex Marriage Aftermath: Everyone Just Sue the Bastards,” David S. Cohen compares the climate today versus 2004, when Massachusetts first began to allow same-sex marriage. Professor Cohen points to a 2004 ACLU memo titled “Don’t Just Sue the Bastards.” Calling it a “a great snapshot in time in the movement for marriage equality,” Cohen notes “memo raises three reasons: 1) the risk of losing cases; 2) the risk of setbacks longterm; and 3) the less-than-certain odds at the Supreme Court.”
Today, clearly, the environment for same-sex couples is vastly different. 13 states, Washington, D.C., and several Native American tribes have all made same-sex marriage legal, and there are active efforts in another ten states to allow marriage equality.
Cohen says “after Windsor, I think every gay or lesbian couple who wants to get married should file federal lawsuit in every state that doesn’t allow gay marriage.”
“Let a thousand (or tens of thousand) lawsuits bloom!” he proclaims.
Cohen offers these as the “upsides” of ‘a thousand lawsuits.”
Justice Kennedy’s language can be used as a template. Since “the legal arguments are already very well developed and briefed,” the work on these cases will be “easy.”  “More cases bubbling up to the Supreme Court will keep the issue alive and in the news.” And he notes “there will also just as certainly, as we saw with many of the amicus briefing in the Supreme Court, be the absurd, offensive, and downright ludicrous” anti-equality defenses offered in courts — which can only help us.
Cohen says we should make it “[e]xpensive for discriminating states” to keep defending their anti-equality measures, such as bans on marriage equality.
“More litigation will also force states that continue their discriminatory practices to spend money to defend them. They want to continue to have a policy of inequality? Make it expensive. Make them defend hundreds of lawsuits in different district courts across the state. Even if the cases are consolidated, they’ll be expensive for the state to defend against all the parties throughout every stage of litigation.”
Not everyone is convinced this is the right approach.
Veteran journalist and LGBT activist Karen Ocamb wonders if “there any coordination on this spate of marriage efforts?” And she has many valid questions:
Questions such as: who is taking the lead on the five-year plan—AFER? HRC? A shotgun marriage with Freedom to Marry? It’s ironic that no one has yet mentioned Freedom to Marry’s Roadmap to Victory that founder Evan Wolfson has been talking about for the 20 years I’ve known him. And ironically, there is a Washington Post story by Ruth Marcus out yesterday that starts:
“Evan Wolfson received a B on the law school paper that helped change the world.
It was 1983, and Wolfson, submitting the paper required of all third-year students at Harvard Law School, had chosen a topic—constitutional protection for same-sex marriage—seemingly so far-fetched that some of the distinguished scholars he had asked to serve as faculty advisers declined.â€
It’s my understanding that those LGBT legal groups have never stopped talking and coordinating. That’s good. But, that’s not known, and it might be useful for someone to pop up and note that there is some strategy, some coordination between and among LGBT national and legal groups, because to a layperson’s eye like mine, this looks like the legal Gold Rush in the old Wild West.
And as we see with the Scopes trial and evolution, and the now-successful efforts to scuttle Roe v. Wade, no matter how frustrated Rachel Maddow gets reporting on how the anti-abortion battles are impacting millions of women’s lives, and no matter how many Wendy Davises stand and filibuster, the cultural war is still on, and we will eventually lose or have to face more costly battles to secure and defend our constitutional rights if we don’t come together, engage and coordinate with our own people and a progressive coalition and strategize now. After all, the Supreme Court may have conferred marriage rights on same-sex couples in marriage states, but they effectively castrated the Voting Rights Act that most of us thought was sacred and immune from the bigotry of old. Let’s not be so arrogant as to think that would never happen to our happy gay couples.
Is there a “right” approach?
Edie Windsor often reminds us that no LGBT organization would take her case when she wanted to file it, and she won it without their support — at least their initial support. Aside from advertising the case, filing amicus briefs, and fundraising off it, how much did our LGBT orgs do to help Windsor win, and for how long?
LGBT orgs also thought that the Prop 8 case should never have gone to the Supreme Court. Were they right?
Is the time now?
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Image by Chris Mancilla via Instagram
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U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, Republican of Georgia, is under fire after praising University of Mississippi students, some wearing American flag outfits, mocking a Black woman protester by making monkey sounds and shouting, “lock her up.”
“Counter-protestors at the University of Mississippi made racist remarks — including monkey noises and comparisons to Lizzo — towards a Black woman who was part of a planned protest against the war in Gaza,” Los Angeles Magazine reported Friday.
Collins, who tried to defund Vice President Kamala Harris’ Office in November, declared his support for the counter-protesters at “Ole Miss,” as the University is called.
“Ole Miss taking care of business,” he wrote on social media, atop the video (below).
The counter-protesters, as evidenced in the video, appear to be mostly white.
A large number of users on the social media platform X responded, accusing the Congressman and the counter-protesters of racism.
“When is the inevitable ‘I don’t have a racist bone in my body’ tweet coming,” wondered Rewire News Group editor-at-large Imani Gandy.
“Which part is your favorite, Mike?” asked Fred Wellman, the former executive director of The Lincoln Project. “Is it the white kid acting like a monkey at the black woman or the white security guy acting like she’s a threat? I’m trying to figure out which flavor of racism has you all excited the most?”
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Harvard Law Cyberlaw Clinic clinical instructor Alejandra Caraballo responded to the Georgia GOP congressman, “Thanks for confirming you’re a massive racist piece of sh*t.”
Mississippi Free Press news editor Ashton Pittman wrote: “Rep. Mike Collins, R-Georgia, praises a video showing a University of Mississippi frat boy dancing like a monkey and making monkey noises near a Black woman student who was protesting for Palestine while other frat boys chant ‘lock her up.'”
In a separate post describing a separate video taken of the same group Pittman wrote: “Frat bros at @OleMiss chant, ‘Lizzo! Lizzo!’ and shout, ‘F**k you fatass, f**k you b*tch’ at a Black woman who was protesting for Palestine. Do people really think these counterprotestors are doing it to support Jews?”
Journalist John Harwood did not mince words, writing, “Congressman proud of the racism.”
“Okay, Mike. We get it,” wrote podcast host, documentary director, and author W. Kamau Bell. “You want to be famous for being a racist. Fine. I’ll help you become a famous racist. You’re welcome.”
The original video is here.
See Rep. Collins’ post and the video below or at this link.
Caution: the video is disturbing.
Ole Miss taking care of business. pic.twitter.com/JiL9hs2pHz
— Rep. Mike Collins (@RepMikeCollins) May 3, 2024
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Amid more damning revelations from her soon-to-be released book, embattled South Dakota Republican Governor Kristi Noem will head to Mar-a-Lago this weekend as ex-president Donald Trump auditions potential vice presidential picks in front of high-dollar donors. Noem was also slated to attend a Republican fundraiser in Colorado this weekend but it was canceled over alleged safety concerns after news broke she had bragged about shooting her 14-month old dog.
While Noem’s shooting to death of her wirehaired pointer, Cricket, which she detailed in the book, is still making headlines overnight a new revelation made news: Noem falsely claims in her book she met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
A spokesperson for Noem “seemed to concede that the Kim story was false Thursday night,” and notified her publisher, Politico’s Ryan Lizza reported in his exclusive.
But less noticed appears to be the actual text of Noem’s false story, in which she brands children she ministered in church “little tyrants,” and compared them to the murderous North Korean dictator.
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“Through my tenure on the House Armed Services Committee,” Noem wrote, according to Politico, “I had the chance to travel to many countries to meet with world leaders. I remember when I met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. I’m sure he underestimated me, having no clue about my experience staring down little tyrants (I’d been a children’s pastor, after all).”
CNBC reported this week Trump “will mingle with potential vice presidential running mates and wealthy Republican donors at the Republican National Committee’s spring donor retreat. The meetings are likely to act as informal tryouts for a short list of politicos in the running to join the Trump ticket.”
The list of Republican “special guests” includes U.S. Senators Marco Rubio, Tim Scott, and J.D. Vance, Rep. Elise Stefanik, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem.
Also expected to attend are House Speaker Mike Johnson, U.S. Reps. Byron Donalds of Florida and Wesley Hunt of Texas, former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, and other elected Republicans along with RNC co-chair Lara Trump.
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NBC News, which says Rep. Donalds is also under consideration, on Friday added there will be “a fundraising retreat that could serve as a screening session” for potential vice presidential running mates.
Meanwhile, the Jefferson County, Colorado Republican Party chair announced a fundraising dinner Noem was slated to attend was canceled after threats were made, The Denver Post reports.
“We understood there was a planned organized protest outside of the hotel, led by Progress Now,” Nancy Pallozzi said. “I felt that our event would be negatively impacted, and we could not take the risk that those who made threats would cause physical harm.”
Over the weekend independent 2024 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. spoke at a fundraiser for a far-right anti-government group in Erie County, New York – a slice of the country that had a large proportion of residents arrested and charged for crimes related to the January 6 insurrection. Kennedy, a conspiracy theorist and vaccine denialist, increasingly is embracing the far-right.
“That group, Constitutional Coalition of New York State, has founders who not only have ties to Donald Trump but are also connected to the stop-the-steal movement through their activist network, which includes groups that had a presence at the Capitol on Jan. 6,” The Daily Beast reported Friday. “It’s yet another instance of Kennedy—who is mounting one of the most well-funded third-party presidential threats in decades—serving as a peculiar bridge between his own anti-establishment movement and Trump’s.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center includes the Constitutional Coalition of New York State (CCNYS) on its page of anti-government groups. Political Research Associates, which detailed the high proportion of January 6 residents arrested and charged, included the Constitutional Coalition of New York State in its February report on “The Rise of the Far Right in Western New York.”
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“If you don’t think the government is lying to you, you’re not paying attention,” Kennedy told attendees at the CCNYS fundraiser, The Buffalo News reports.
“CCNYS founders Nick and Nancie Orticelli are also affiliated with the Watchmen, a nearby militia who Nick has encouraged his social media followers to join. The Watchmen had several members at the Capitol on Jan. 6, and one member, Pete Harding, is still facing charges for violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds,” The Daily Beast noted. “Nancie Orticelli has also hosted the Watchmen’s founder, Charles Pellien, on her weekly radio show on several occasions.”
One of Kennedy’s goals in traveling to New York was to get on the ballot for the November presidential election. Various polls show him taking votes from both President Joe Biden and ex-president Donald Trump, but Kennedy currently has only qualified to be on the ballot in three states, Utah, Michigan and Hawaii, the newspaper reported.
But The Washington Post on Thursday reported The American Independent Party of California, which has a history of “far-right ties,” and “backed segregationist and former Alabama governor George Wallace in 1968, nominated Kennedy for president.”
Kennedy “said this week that he has qualified to be on the ballot in California and will accept the nomination of the American Independent Party, which has a history of associating itself with far-right figures and individuals who have expressed racist views.”
Some news reports and RFK Jr. himself say the Trump campaign was actively courting Kennedy, attempting to convince him to consider being the ex-president’s 2024 vice presidential running mate.
“That MAGA dalliance with Kennedy could be coming back to bite the Trump campaign, some Republicans close to the former president worry,” The Daily Beast also reported.
“’They can only blame themselves,’ a Trump-aligned strategist told The Daily Beast, requesting anonymity to speak candidly about private conversations about the risk Kennedy poses, ‘because they cozied up to him and thought it was funny.’”
Watch WIVBTV’s report on Kennedy’s trip to New York below or at this link.
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Congressman Pummeled for Praising Students Mocking Black Protester With Monkey Sounds
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