Supreme Court rejects appeal of DC marriage equality law

BREAKING:
AP reports:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from opponents of same-sex marriage who want to overturn the District of Columbia's gay marriage law.

The court did not comment Tuesday in turning away a challenge from a Maryland pastor and others who are trying to get a measure on the ballot to allow Washingtonians to vote on a measure that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

UPDATE (from comments) Box Turtle Bulletin discusses implications:

After the DC Council voted to enact marriage equality, Bishop Harry Jackson (a Maryland preacher) got signatures to put a referendum on the ballot. But the District has a provision which disallows referenda on civil rights issues and the Board of Elections and Ethics deemed an anti-gay marriage vote to be just such a vote.

When the courts did not overturn this decision, Jackson appealed to the Supreme Court and asked for a stay. In March, Justice Roberts declined the stay. Now the case is settled.

We cannot extrapolate too much from this decision. However, the following seems to be true:

There are not four anti-gay activist justices on the Supreme Court who are willing to take whatever steps are necessary to oppose equality.

The idea that gay marriage is, indeed, a civil rights issue – or can legitimately be seen as such by an Elections Board – is acceptable to at least six of the nine justices.

Posted by Ann Fontaine on January 18, 2011 11:07 AM | |
Comments (3)

Box Turtle has some analysis of this outcome:

http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2011/01/18/29688

Posted by John B. Chilton [TypeKey Profile Page] | January 18, 2011 11:28 AM

If this decision (by default) makes marriage equality a civil rights question then we can expect all sorts of new actions to emerge. I'd say that this house of cards is starting to fall and it's about time!

Posted by Peter Pearson [TypeKey Profile Page] | January 18, 2011 3:20 PM

TBTG!

JC Fisher

Posted by tgflux [TypeKey Profile Page] | January 19, 2011 12:12 AM

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