It's the courts, Stupid!

Yesterday a bunch of Bernie Bros got Souter trending on Twitter, claiming that if Joe Biden is elected we will get a conservative Supreme court Justice.

Let's get some detail on that one:

Nominee	Year/President	Vote	Biden's vote
John Paul Stevens	1975, Ford	98-0	Yea
Sandra Day O'Connor	1981, Reagan	99-0	Yea
William Rehnquist	1986, Reagan	65-33	Nay
Antonin Scalia	1986, Reagan	98-0	Yea
Anthony Kennedy	1988, Reagan	97-0	Yea
David Souter	1990, George H.W. Bush	90-9	Yea
Clarence Thomas	1991, George H. W. Bush	52-48	Nay
Ruth Bader Ginsburg	1993, Bill Clinton	96-3	Yea
Stephen Breyer	1994, Bill Clinton	87-9	Yea
John Roberts	2005, George W. Bush	78-22	Nay
Samuel Alito	2006, George W. Bush	58-42	Nay

Here is the thing, on every controversial Republican pick, Biden voted no. He voted with the majority of the Democratic party the majority of the time, and if he wins the election he will probably nominate court justices like RBG, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayer, and Elena Kagan.

There are also a lot of lower courts which Trump has had the ability to pack over the last 3 years, given how McConnell refused to give Obama his appointees which was I believe was technically unconstitutional. If Trump wins another term, he will probably replace either RBG or Stephen Breyer by 2025. If that happens, here are the court decisions which are likely to be overturned:

1. Obergefell v. Hodges
2. Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey
3. Massachusetts v. EPA
4. Texas v. Johnson
5. Grutter v. bollinger

and more.

This is what you are voting on.

DOMA isn't completely dead yet...

During the last supreme court decision they only overturned section three of DOMA, but didn't touch the other section which states that states

No State, territory, or possession of the United States, or Indian tribe, shall be required to give effect to any public act, record, or judicial proceeding of any other State, territory, possession, or tribe respecting a relationship between persons of the same sex that is treated as a marriage under the laws of such other State, territory, possession, or tribe, or a right or claim arising from such relationship.

Article IV Section I states:

Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof.

This is a blatant violation of the fourth article of the constitution and maybe the most unconstitutional part of the entire US Code. States must represent all legal contracts entered into in every other state, and because of this the rest of the Defense of Marriage Act must be repealed.

Finish the job.

We won, we have work to do

Today, as everybody knows, the Supreme Court overturned DOMA and Proposition 8 as unconsitutional. Today will be remembered for the rest of American history and will be written in textbooks for decades to come, but the battle for freedom including and beyond gay rights is just getting started for this century.

On DOMA it is relieving to see that the Federal government will now recognize gay marriages, and this is a major step forward for freedom in our country. DOMA had no legal standing in the first place, for the reasons I outlined here: United States v. Windsor

I am pleased and disappointed with the decision on Proposition 8. I recommend reading Joanna Brooks' article on the issue because she is such an eloquent writer and Mormon. I am delighted that gay marriage has returned to California, and that it now opens opportunities to open district court challenges to anti-marriage laws in states across the country.

We saw the Supreme Court effectively overturn the Voting Rights Act yesterday in Shelby County v. Holder, one of the most important pieces of legislation in the history of America. I would have agreed with a decision to extend Department of Justice approval to all changes , but they instead went the other way. Get ready for major bills restricting voting rights to people in the South through large requirements for voter identification and other ineffective and immoral changes to their laws. We need a Right to Vote amendment now to make such proposals harder to defend in court, because we are going down the rabbit hole. We need major voting reform now, and this is just one more tragedy that will convince more people of the desperate need to improve our democracy.

The past 24 hours have been a 67% success rate, hopefully we can change this set of decisions around before the next census... though I am not completely confident if enough people are mobilized it can be done.

More gay marriage predictions

I have already blogged about the American front for gay rights, but what about internationally?

Today New Zealand has taken a gigantic step for equality and approved gay marriage, which means gay marriage is now legal in 12 countries and in parts of three others. 243,000,000 people (rounded to the nearest million) live in countries where gay marriage is legal currently, or 3 percent of the world's population. The most populous country to have gay rights is South Africa at 52,000,000 people, and the least populous is Iceland at just over 300,000. Mexico is larger than South Africa, but gay marriage can only be performed in certain jurisdictions, so it isn't equal to the others. Since 2010 began 5 more countries have approved gay marriage. I expect the next few year swill see a few more countries legalize gay marriage, most likely some of the following:

1. Andorra has proposed gay marriage/
2. Cambodia has allowed a few gay couples to legally marry, whether this will turn into legislation is unknown.
3. Chile has pending legislation to legalize gay marriage.
4. Colombia's court has ordered that gay marriage must be legalized soon.
5. Finland's government has immense pressure from the people to legalize gay marriage, and I expect they will legalize it in the next few years.
6. France will almost certainly have gay marriage in the next few months.
7. Germany will legalize gay marriage if not this year than after Merkel's government is hopefully defeated.
8. Ireland will legalize gay marriage soon.
9. Luxembourg intends to leglalize gay marriage
10. Nepal will likely approve gay marriage in the near future but is currently stalled.
11. The United Kingdom will legalize gay marriage soon.
12. Uruguay will almost certainly legalize gay marriage this year with a promised signature from the President.
13. The United States Supreme Court will probably require states to recognize gay marriages soon, if they follow previous decisions.
14. Vietnam is moving towards gay marriage, albeit slowly.

A few other countries are likely to approve gay marriage in the near future based off of their other freedoms.

1. Austria has potential.
2. Czech Republic
3. Estonia has proposed civil unions.
4. Liechtenstein
5. Philippines
6. Switzerland

If the countries I outline above approve gay marriage, than 1.3 billion people will live in countries where gay marriage is legal or performed or recognized. The future is bright for gay marriage.

United States v. Windsor

US v. Windsor will be finished at the end of today, and before it is done I want to present my prediction.

The Supreme court will approve gay marriage across the United States and strike down discriminatory laws for the same reasons they struck down the bullshit Jim Crow Laws back in the 1960s and passed Lawrence v. Texas in 2003. It will be a 7-2 decision, the people who will support the decision will be Kennedy, Ginsburg, Breyer, Roberts (he has argued in favor of gay rights before), Alito (who was an advocate for legalizing sodomy and argued against employment discrimination), Sotomayer and Kagan, and those who are opposed will be Scalia and Thomas. I base this on their histories of voting and their personal philosophies, being mostly libertarian, this outcome is likely. Given the jurisprudence and history of the Supreme Court cases given gay rights and human rights at large this is likely.

They will overturn Section 3 of DOMA and they will give rights to all married couples in the United States for the same reason that they overturned Jim Crow Laws in Brown v. Board among other very important decisions that overturned local laws because they were counter to the United States Constitution.

One place where the decision they will make is not completely clear to me is whether the State Constitution amendments which say that gay marriage is illegal is unconstitutional under the 14th amendment 2nd section's equal protection clause. I could understand the argument stating that is illegal, and if that isn't illegal than how could the state rights that were curtailed under Brown v. Board be considered valid? The only valid decision regarding these state laws based on jurisprudence would be to invalidate these laws because they run counter to the 14th amendment 2nd section, or throw out that crucial part of our constitution. Whether the states must perform gay marriage should be done under the same jurisprudence which was done in the 1960s with interracial marriage.

On this issue I feel optimistic that the Supreme Court will make the right choice to recognize gay marriage at the Federal level, looking at the history of each Justice's opinions over the years.

This month I am doing one blogpost every day, BEDA, Blog Every Day April, as inspired by Hank Green of the Vlogbrothers. DFTBA!

Predictions for the next 2 years in gay rights

OK, now to go off on a limb.

As of today, 51 senators approve gay marriage. That number is only going to go up for two reasons: people know that gay marriage is going to happen, and I expect the Republicans are going to lose seats in 2014 and 2016 (by which point it hopefully won't matter).

Right now as I write this Wikipedia lists 177 representatives who support gay marriage. There are currently 24 Democrats who haven't announced their support of gay marriage. Assuming the Democrats get on board and the President uses his bully pulpit like President L Johnson that number goes to 201. That means to get legislation passed before 2015 we need to get 16 more Republicans to get on board with gay marriage, a hard task. It might happen but I seriously doubt it will. If the Democrats win the election next year there is no turning back, gay marriage will pass both houses.

There are a few states I expect that will change their laws over the next two years before Congress acts. I anticipate Hawaii, Oregon, California, New Mexico, Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and Rhode Island have the potential move closer to marriage equality. If I am right in half of these states the number of states with marriage equality will exist in 16 states.

Gay rights will be a major issue in next year's elections which are extremely important. If the Democrats pick up only 16 seats, which in a previous post I argue is likely, than I will be very surprised if gay marriage is not respected nationwide by 2016. It may not be popular in many states, particularly the south, but neither was the Civil Rights Act! I am extremely optimistic that gay marriage will have equal footing nationwide very soon.

If you aren't decided yet, here's all you need to know.

So, i was just watching a collection of eloquent speeches (yeah...) by Mitt Romney, and I know that it is by DailyKos which is liberal, but still fair.

After doing some intense discussions with some Republicans I know that cutting $50 billion from the budget will not eliminate the $900 deficit, I decided to see what FOX News had on Obama: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-6bOm6hmZo

That should be enough.

If you want to know what Obama stands for, I recommend the following:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE0DwFo2G9A on Native American rights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P8DRQjqCac on the National Debt, solutions, and its implications
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=302IM0rAKKc on taxes and where the economy grows from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQGMTPab9GQ on gay marriage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHj9E6hcfn4 on Iran

If you want to know what Romney stands for, I recommend the following:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPgfzknYd20&feature=youtu.be on gay marriage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grS7hK0QTlo on the national debt and the birther movement (the debt is actually just over 100% of GDP)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSJVskD2iCE on taxes, including a little from Obama.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wqiivwivBE on Israel, including http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/guest_bloggers/6236/romney%E2%80%99s_compliment_to_the_jewish_people_closer_to_a_slur/

Hopefully this can help make voting a little easier.

I have already made a post "Obama v. Romney" which did this, but here is some more information on important issues:

On taxes, if you support a tax code which is progressive, where those who don't make a lot can save for the future and where the rich pay a larger percent of their annual income than others, vote for Obama. If you support a tax code where poor people making the cost of living pay income tax, and tax cuts for capital gains, different industries like oil, and the lowest effective rate for millionaires create the lowest rate for millionaires in the developed world, vote for Romney.

On Iran, if you want to unequivocally give unconditional support to Israel no matter who actually strikes first, vote for Romney. If you do not want to invade Iran, vote for Obama.

On Gay marriage, if you believe the government has a role in determining who can and cannot get married, vote for Romney. If you believe that marriage is a human right and the government should allow gays and lesbians to get married, vote for Obama.

On the national debt, if you think the debt should be fixed thoroughly through cutting the budget and through no tax hikes, vote for Romney. If you want a balanced approach with a more progressive tax code and keep services the government provides to working-class families, vote for Obama.

Please subscribe through Google Reader or a similar service for updates! If you know an undecided voter, please share!

The Ultimate Christian Argument for Love for All. Following A Tradition of Standing on the Side of Love

At the core of every religious tradition is love of humanity and love of creator -- not hatred for your neighbors. 

Please stop exporting hate in the name of religion.

Follow your book. You are blaspheming against your professed religion and breaking what Jesus said to be the greatest law when challenged by his servants:
Matthew 22:34
34 But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.

35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,

36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

38 This is the first and great commandment.

39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

You are not loving your neighbor, which is part of the highest law of the religion you profess to follow. Stop hating or stop calling yourselves Christian. You can not do both in good faith.

Another story that is commonly used to say that gays should not love is Sodom and Gomorrah. This is a misuse and misapplication of the story. They had been homosexual for years and God had let them live. They were only smitten when they had gangraped their visitors, breaking the ancient value of respecting your guests. This is a misapplication and hence should be discarded.

The final place in the Bible that is used against Gay Rights is in Leviticus saying how men will not have sex with men. This is in the chapter preceding the rules for offerings, which is not followed, not mixing seeds in a garden, not followed, rules of fruit of trees, not followed, respect for strangers in your land, not currently followed in America by the far right, and in 23:8 you are supposed to give fire offerings. They have picked and chosen for political convenience. This is immoral and blasphemous.

It seems like in order to follow Jesus and read the entire Bible there is now nothing that goes against gay rights... however, there is one commandment, the second-highest commandment, that instructs all true Christians to love their neighbors. You are blaspheming and must stop your assault on love. Jesus would disagree with your actions. Stop Hate.

Why Civil Unions are not and never will be enough.

At first glance, civil unions seem excellent, you keep the religious conservatives happy by keeping marriage between a person in a male body and a person in a female body and you make those pushy activists content with a form of union between gays and lesbians. To many of us in the movement for equality between straights and gays civil unions seems like a reasonable compromise for equality.

However, it is not and never will be enough. It is second class, and any society that has classes is an unjust society. According to theNational Center for Lesbian Rights there are some gigantic disadvantages to civil unions currently. They do not get any of the 1,138 benefits of marriage from the federal government. Most states will not recognize civil unions. They also do not have the clarity of marriage, not having the same benefits state to state as marriage does.

But this is not nearly as egregious as the most dangerous status of civil unions. If the entire United States gave marriages to heterosexual couples and civil unions to gay couples they are in two distinct classes. Because the lists are separate it takes only a swipe of a pen to eliminate all the rights for gays by eliminating civil unions. The Radical Christians would have no problem doing this.

This is still not as dangerous as it truly is. If the Radical Christians become any more radicalized they could instead hunt gays like in Uganda. They would have all the information there and it would be easy to find them. Replace the benefits with punishments. It may seem a long ways off but it is still a possibility that would be easy to do.

Also, in Washington State anyone can view people with Civil Unions on the Secretary of State's website. This puts them at terrible risk for hate crimes and losing business and not getting jobs (by giving another reason).

This must end now. This is why we must not bow to hate. We must demand that all people get the same recognition under the same name, Marriage. It must be on a nationwide level so that people who currently don't know people who are gay will be able to turn off the hateful rhetoric that comes from so many radicals throughout the country. Until then equality will not be possible.

Them

"They did it again those no-good, ungodly, sinning Thems. Can you believe as a good Christian American what They did? They want to take Our jobs, leaving Us out on the street. They are going to marry and then rape Our women, They are going to take over Our government, and to top it off They are going to become the leading class leaving Us to the dogs. They are going to be elected President. They are already in Congress. If you ask me, I think we should deport Them all. Send Them back to where They came from I say, and if We want Their land We will take it and They will have less because They are not God-fearing. Not only that but They have already taken over entire cities, entire states that We used to control. They don't even speak the same language as Us with all of Their culture's nonsense words that We don't use. For the sake of Humanity, They must be destroyed."
~ Leader of the West Secure Klan Inc.

Sound familiar? Good, you read your history. Sound familiar? Good, you have been watching the news.

Things I want to see.

I want to see the Right-wing talking heads respond to three propositions

1. Mississippi has just outlawed marriage between black and white people.
2. Protesters march on building of Church in Atheist community.
3. Tax officers in Beverly hills are stopping white people for hopes of getting the money they lost.

Wouldn't that just be entertaining or what? Terrible, yes, entertaining, definitely.

On Perry v. Schwarzenegger

To find the information on the current case see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_v._Schwarzenegger and http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/tag/perry-v-schwarzenegger

I think this case is extremely important. Gay rights are just right in a free society for the following reasons:
1. Love makes a Family. People need to have the right to marry whoever they want. If we don't give people the right to love they will be miserable for no reason, and anyways, healthy families are built on love.
2. The arguments made are based on religion. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. This is the American creed. The arguments against gay marriage are based on religion and gay marriage should be allowed because of this.
3. They are no different than heterosexual families. We need to get past the idea that women and men are completely different. People generally don't follow the extreme right's assumption that they are different. I have met many people and people are diverse beyond what form their body takes.
4. Connecting to my second point, other nations that punish gay marriage include Sudan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Somalia who kill gays among others. Nations that allow gay marriage are Canada, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, and Belgium. There are also some parts in America and Mexico City. We need to decide to side with free nations as opposed to genocidal (Sudan), unfree (Saudi Arabia), unstable (Somalia), and bureaucratic nations (Iran).
5. People that go against Gay marriage include Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Osama bin Laden, and many others.
6. They are a minority and are committing a victimless crime.

Because of these 6 reasons, gay marriage must be allowed in the United States of America.

Originally written on 18 January 2010