It's Kentucky's turn to make headlines. Although Arkansas surly would beg to differ.
I was reading a article on Kentucky Governor, Steve Beshear, and his role in defending Kentucky's ban on gay certain marriages.
In an article in The Courier-Journal by Andrew Wolfson published on May 10th, all is explained on what Kentucky has been up to since losing in District Court:
Go read the full article. Seriously. I will quiz later on the material.
There is defiantly a lesson to be learned for governors, here. When your AG drops a case like this, perhaps you should likewise.By hiring outside legal representation, you are wasting government money that could be spent on education, improving infrastructure, or hell, even dildos for the poor would be a better use of the money.
If Jack Conway is running as a Democrat for Governor and you lose this case, he looks intelligent, a good leader, and fiscally prudent, while your party looks incompetent.... Wait Beshear's a Democrat... ummm. uhhh.... but... but. at least Conway looks good and smart... and at least now perhaps I will look a little less partisan... shit.
To see what Governor Beshear's odds are of success, I took a look at the Brief they filed with the 6th Circuit Court.
What scares me the most is that the Brief for the Defendant Appellant is very well written. The Brief is grammatically flowing and avoids choppy sentences and general errors. I obviously disagree with the logic and the jurisprudence presented; however, well written briefs have a tendency of succeeding, particularly when they defend the status quo.
But let's take a look at their argumentation:
Kentucky, like 33
other states, has exercised its broad authority to regulate domestic relations
by adopting a traditional man-woman definition of marriage.
That is not a definition of marriage. Marriage is defined by the statutes that promulgate the rights and responsibilities of marriage. States define marriage by whether or not they adopt the Communal Property Regime or if they use Common Law Property. Beyond that you are defining who gets married, and a state needs a damn good reason to do that (literally. Abridging the 14th Amendment requires strict scrutiny.)
So what's Kentucky's damn good reason for not recognizing same-sex marriages:
Even if Baker were not preclusive, Plaintiffs’
equal protection claims fail. Same-sex couples are materially different from
traditional man-woman couples. Only man-woman couples can naturally procreate.
Fostering procreation serves a legitimate economic interest that is rationally
related to the traditional man-woman marriage model. Thus, same-sex couples are
not similarly situated to man woman couples, and the distinction drawn by
Kentucky’s statutes is rationally related to a legitimate interest of Kentucky.
So economic collapse will ensue if Kentucky.. umm.. huh!? Gay people don't stop gaying it up when denied marriage. Yes, men and women make more men and women, and people see that as being somehow good for society. But straight people will continue popping little people out of their baby cannons, even if the gayz are allowed equal benefits. This doesn't even meet rational basis.
Furthermore the examples used by Kentucky to demonstrate their hypothesis are Japan and Germany, neither of which allow same-sex marriage. So we can't allow gay certain types of marriages, because there are problems in places where those gay certain types of marriages aren't performed. You do realize that's an argument for gay marriage, right?
But hold up, what's this about Baker v. Nelson:
Additionally, Baker v. Nelson, 191 N.W.2d 185 (Minn.
1971), appeal dismissed by 409 U.S. 810 (1972), affirmatively rejected the
notion that state law same-sex marriage prohibitions violate the Equal
Protection Clause. Baker remains
valid binding precedent upon the lower federal courts.
When nearly every federal jurisdiction in America is hearing the same type of case, perhaps this isn't the best argument. Baker provides no rational as it simply declined Certiorari. So after Perry, courts could adopt the 10th Circuits ruling as a primary persuasive authority. I explained it more in detail on the write up over Kitchen v. Herbert. Baker was over a statutory ban, while Kentucky has a constitutional ban. Thanks bigots!
Liam '14
The Reader Quiz
By what day must the Plaintiffs file their response to the appeal?
A. May 30th
B. June 9th
C. July 4th
D.Butt-Sex
The answer is D. Butt-Sex... good job reading the Courier-Journal article.
