This particular story isn’t online, but on the front page of the Wisconsin State Journal (a surprisingly good little newspaper with a substantial number of well written stories), they describe the Prop. 8 ruling with the following headline:
“Judge affirms rights of gays”
Not only is that different from every other headline or story I’ve seen on the matter, which inevitably blare “Judge strikes down ban” or some variation, but this seems more accurate, particularly if you read the following portion of the ruling that Orin Kerr highlighted:
The right to marry has been historically and remains the right to choose a spouse and, with mutual consent, join together and form a household. Race and gender restrictions shaped marriage during eras of race and gender inequality, but such restrictions were never part of the historical core of the institution of marriage. Today, gender is not relevant to the state in determining spouses’ obligations to each other and to their dependents. Relative gender composition aside, same-sex couples are situated identically to opposite-sex couples in terms of their ability to perform the rights and obligations of marriage under California law. Gender no longer forms an essential part of marriage; marriage under law is a union of equals.
Plaintiffs seek to have the state recognize their committed relationships, and plaintiffs’ relationships are consistent with the core of the history, tradition and practice of marriage in the United States. Perry and Stier seek to be spouses;they seek the mutual obligation and honor that attend marriage, Zarrillo and Katami seek recognition from the state that their union is “a coming together for better or for worse, hopefully enduring, and intimate to the degree of being sacred.” Griswold, 381 US at 486. Plaintiffs’ unions encompass the historical purpose and form of marriage. Only the plaintiffs’ genders relative to one another prevent California from giving their relationships due recognition.
Plaintiffs do not seek recognition of a new right. To characterize plaintiffs’ objective as “the right to same-sex marriage” would suggest that plaintiffs seek something different from what opposite-sex couples across the state enjoy —— namely, marriage. Rather, plaintiffs ask California to recognize their relationships for what they are: marriages.
I think it would be wise to adopt the language of the Wisconsin State Journal. We did not strike down a ban, we affirmed the rights of our fellow citizens. Gays (and whoever else society decides to bully next) aren’t asking for any special rights. They just want the same rights everyone else enjoys, and our laws exist to make sure that that is the case. These are fundamental principles that really state who we are as a people, much as the Cordoba mosque issue struck at our core principles.
It’s just another example of how perverse Republicanism and “conservatism” have become that they want to strike at the heart of who we are as a people for little more than short term political gain.
Paul in KY
John, since you’re up there in Wisconsin right now (I think), you should try some beer by a company called ‘New Glarus’. They make several varieties, one is called ‘Spotted Cow’, another is called ‘Uff Da’.
I thought it was pretty good. Be interested to hear what you think.
Cacti
Good points.
As I also mentioned on the 14th Amendment thread, I think the best way to frame that issue is…
Republicans want to change the Constitution to punish babies.
Daddy-O
Media Matters should post a thread about this. Good catch, JC.
Corner Stone
Somebody better figure out the logistics for moving Cole’s earthly possessions to Wiscy because I don’t think he’s ever going back.
Maybe TattooSydney can write another verse about the fat man, the fat cat, the fat dog and the barky dog moving to a new home in hippieville.
The Fat Cat and His Bitches: Westward Hos!
Snarki, child of Loki
Why not? They launched an invasion of a country that was no threat to the US, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians for “short term political gain”.
You seem surprised that monsters are behaving like monsters.
Cathie from Canada
It is a valuable way to deal with the issue.
When the Canadian supreme court and provincial courts defined gay marriage as a civil rights issue, then Canadian politicians and the general public got behind it. Several politicians, including the Prime Minister at the time, said they hadn’t understood gay marriage as an equal rights question rather than a religious issue, until the supreme court defined it that way.
gwangung
I prefer how Coates put it:
birthmarker
The power of the headline. The most frequently read part of an article. HuffPost should take note. (HuffPost makes me cranky.)
Amanda in the South Bay
JC-
I think this is a well written post that succintly gets to the heart of the matter; certainly one of the best non LGBT blog postings.
Admittedly I’m not too excited, mostly because I think this was the outcome from the start, the appeals process, and alas I’m not getting married anytime soon, so I’ll hold off on the champaign for a little bit longer.
Susan of Texas
We stopped denying people their civil rights for no reason.
Butch
Actually it’s worth a trip over to New Glarus; it’s a neat little town, all Swiss architecture, in a beautiful setting and some wineries (Primrose is fun) and artisanal cheese factories; the Glaubenstube restaurant has what’s s’posed to be the world’s largest urinal. There’s another winery north of Madison called Wollersheim that’s worth seeing just for the historic winery and has won some awards.
The Wisconsin State Journal used to have a competitor, the Capital Times, that went down a few years ago. WSJ at least then was the more conservative of the two but both produced some good reporting.
I grew up in southeast Wisconsin and went to school in Madison; I now live in the mountains of Colorado but actually miss the area.
N M
WSJ is the righty paper in Madison, so this is a bit shocking. A friend noted in 2008/2009 the amazing headline/article mismatches of the craptastic (pro-)business page. “Economy looks good!” but in the article, all kinds of doom and gloom.
The Capitol Times, the competing lefty rag, had at one point a lower distribution than the premier student newspaper, The Badger Herald(!).
The Dangerman
Just for shits and giggles (I’m apparently easily amused, which reminds me, where are the pet pictures?)…
…I did a Google News search for the Judge. I had heard something in passing (I’m in CA, so yesterday’s news was led by the 8 ruling)…
…to find out an article stating that Vaughn Walker (the Judge) is openly Gay. The source of the article? Fox News. Surprised?
Now, they were almost fair in that article, saying a Gay can render a decision as well as a Straight, but semi-accused the Judge about not recusing himself because of his financial interests in the outcome. Those interests? I guess it was property transfer if the Judge were to get married. I stopped reading because, at that point, I was sufficiently nauseated.
I’m looking forward to learning the sexual orientations of all the 9th Circuit Judges and, of course, the USSC.
Mark S.
I noticed this has been making the rounds: Some tool law professor argues that the problem isn’t that Judge Walker is gay, but that he’s in a stable relationship:
See, if Judge Walker just trolled airport bathrooms or used Rent-a-Boy, there would be no bias.
Irony Abounds
Alas, one reason they have become perverse is that it works, and will provide short term political gain. No matter how right, legally and/or morally, the ruling was, it was exactly what the cranks and loudmouths on the right wanted. Hannity, Rush, Savage, et al. were weeping at the decision – tears of joy that their pocketbooks will be considerably enhanced. It is a perfect decision to demagogue, and it will further bury the Dems in November. Get ready for nothing but judicial activist ads wall to wall. I honestly think the Republicans pick up 60 seats in the House.
martha
OMG John, you are here! Who’da thunk it? Go to the Old Fashioned on the Square for dinner and pray the wait isn’t 2 hours. We’ll look for you … hah…at the Union later. We’ll be there as usual. As for local beer, New Glarus is good, also Capital, Ale Asylum, and Lake Louie…
Stooleo
@Paul in KY: Agreed! New Glarus is a fantastic little brewery, but what they are really famous for is their fruit beers. The Raspberry Tart Framboise and the Belgian Red Cherry Ale are amazing.
BobS
Republicans “have become” that way a long time ago.
In my lifetime, Nixon’s ‘Southern Strategy’, the casual use of “traitor” or “treason” to label those who disagreed with their war policy, Reagan blasting “welfare queens” after launching his campaign in Philadelphia, Miss., the blues-loving hypocrite Lee Atwater and Willie Horton…the list goes on and on.
The core Republican values are hate, fear, and greed. In other words, the core is rotten. Congratulations on your escape, Mr.Cole.
Kristine
@birthmarker:
You and me both.
My fave Wisconsin brew is Gray’s Oatmeal Stout, brewed in Janesville. I think it’s still made. I was able to get it at the Edgewater Hotel, but no one else carried it, and the liquor store on State that used to carry it–forgot the name–stopped carrying it.
BR
Reading Sullivan, saw a link that wingnuts are attacking the judge for being gay, which I guess was obviously the next step.
The GOP has been pushing a insidious form of bigotry especially since the Sotomayor confirmation (and of course well before that, but I digress) that says something like this: “because person X is Latina / Black / Gay / Jewish / Female / Muslim / Asian / … they cannot be truly impartial because impartiality requires that they be like justices in the past, who were impartial.” Of course this means that the standard of impartiality is white and male. That being white or male and ruling on a case that involves whites or males isn’t seen as a similar conflict of interest in their minds reveals their bigotry.
Some Guy
I had thought that citizenship would become the cause celebre to get out the right wing vote and cash in on all that free-floating racism. But this excellent and correct decision will no doubt bring gay rights back into the mix. And with Kagan being on the court, a little anti-abortion reach around with a gay marriage pat on the bum thrown in and you have a whole cultural armageddon to wallow in on if you are right wing loon.
Strange that Angle cannot find a better way to channel her reactionary beliefs. With so much obvious fodder for throw to those disinclined to know things about the Constitution, you would think she could find more productive insanity to drone on about. Perhaps it is that reactionaries, being so . . . anti, are unable to really focus.
Kristine
@Mark S.: I can’t help but think that if Walker were gay, much hay would have been made, and Prop 8 supporters would have claimed bias and demanded a different judge.
If he is gay, and they didn’t…color me surprised.
eyepaddle
@Stooleo:
also @Paul in KY (nd anyone else)
I concur on the New Glarus tip. Their Uff Da Bock was one of the beers that turned me on the path of righteousness back in the early 90s when I was in college (which was in Winona MN–another town worth the trip BTW, although not for its beer)
Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle
JC:
Sweet Jesus!! You almost made me cry. Granted, I don’t always agree with you but I am surprised the RWNJ’s didn’t kick you out sooner.
MadLurker
@Paul in KY: Spotted Cow is on more taps around these parts than Miller Lite, deservedly so, but Uff Da was discontinued by New Glarus a couple of years back. If you like pale ales, their Moon Man is a good selection, as is their Cracked Wheat hybrid brew.
Midnight Marauder
@Kristine:
They definitely tried to make an issue of it when the San Francisco Chronicle noted Judge Walker’s sexuality back in February, but it didn’t really gain any traction:
They’re just trotting out the nonsense for another go-round. I expect them to achieve marginally more success this time.
bemused
Dems have not spent enough time learning how to frame an issue in a few simple, clear, concise words. As Al Franken was talking about the health care issue when he said there are too many words to fit on a bumper sticker and then it would have to say “to be continued on the next bumper sticker”. It’s the same with every other issue.
R’s are much better at this but it’s far easier when you don’t care if it’s a lie and you deliberately choose inflammatory terms.
Some Guy
On slightly related note, re: John’s comment about fundamental principles and language choices, I think it would be useful to argue Republicans nor longer favor a republic. To say they are anti-democratic muddies things because the auditory connotation with Democrats cannot be avoided. But it is quite clear the contemporary Republican party likes oligarchies and its increasingly far right members longing for a new civil war. It neatly capture the neo-Confederate wing and the anti-constitutionalism of it all.
Some Guy
On slightly related note, re: John’s comment about fundamental principles and language choices, I think it would be useful to argue Republicans nor longer favor a republic. To say they are anti-democratic muddies things because the auditory connotation with Democrats cannot be avoided. But it is quite clear the contemporary Republican party likes oligarchies and its increasingly far right members longing for a new civil war. It neatly capture the neo-Confederate wing and the anti-constitutionalism of it all.
Spaghetti Lee
Wisconsin has always seemed like such a progressive place given how white and rural it is. Is that true, or is it just what me looking up from DuPage County, IL, wants to think?
BR
@bemused:
That’s why they should have gone with “Medicare Buy-In” instead of “Public Option”. One conveys everything, the other doesn’t.
Mark S.
@Midnight Marauder:
LOL
And that’s why Scalia has been recusing himself in the gun cases, because he’s an avid hunter. Oh wait, he hasn’t. Man, I’m starting to have second thoughts about the value of a law degree from Liberty University.
Suffern Ace
@Midnight Marauder: I agree. The public probably wasn’t paying much attention the last time, but since the ruling is always bigger news than the hearing, it will resurface now. I don’t know who else was following this case closely.
The issue isn’t that one of the judges may or may not be gay that harmed the case of the marriage banners. Great harm was done to them by their own arguments and poorly made case. Kind of like that ID case a few years back where the ID supporters hoped that by “misremembering” all the relevant facts, he might still decide in their favor. If the decision in this case goes far beyond what was thought probable, it was probably because when actually forced to present evidence, the anti-marriage crowd couldn’t, wouldn’t, and wasted the judges time with nonsense.
debbie
Perverse isn’t the word for it. I just listened to an interview on Talk of the Nation with the head of National Organization of Marriage who insisted that this ruling violated the civil rights of those who supported one man-one woman marriage.
Is this misguided framing or ignorance of basic civics?
MadLurker
@Spaghetti Lee: “White” Americans aren’t nearly as monochomatic as the xenophobe Know Nothings want to believe, nor as some lefties might be afraid. If you subscribe to the Albion’s Seed/Cousin’s Wars approach to American history and ethnicity, it’s simple to notice that the northern border states have a far different cultural and religious background than those straddling the Mason-Dixon line and points farther south.
Wisconsin in the 19th Century was primarily settled by a handful of French Canadians and plenty of New England Yankees moving west, followed in turn by Scandinavians and a fuck ton of Germans. That’s pretty much most of the state excepting Milwaukee, which became the home of many eastern and southern Europeans around the turn of the century, followed by African Americans during the Great Migration. Not really many Scotch-Irish here, rather scatterings people descended from Welsh and Cornish miners; hence the “Badger” label and the ubiquity of pasties. Similar patterns for religions; tons of Methodists, UCCers, Lutherans, and Catholics; not many Southern Baptists or Pentecostals, and their newer charismatic-style brethren are weaker here than in MN or IL. German Catholicism is the motivator of the religious right in this state.
Rural Wisconsin isn’t really all that right-wing, particularly in the counties bordering the Mississippi and in the (industrialized mining and logging) North Woods. The Republican stronghold in the state is the suburbs of Milwaukee and in the exurban areas immediately to their north and west. This isn’t polite to point out, but these are the children and grandchildren of the one-time Bund members who made up the bulk of the white flight from Milwaukee in the ’50s and ’60s. That’s where politicians like James Sensenbrenner come from and represent.
FlipYrWhig
@BR: I actually always liked the phrase “public option.” It’s “public,” i.e. open to all, like a public park or a public school; it’s an “option” rather than mandatory. “Public option” is like the precise antithesis of “government-run.” But I kind of have a nonsexual fetish for the idea of “public” and “the public,” so I may not be representative in that feeling.
fourlegsgood
@Cathie from Canada: Yeah, but you’re canadians. We’re americans, and our body politic is bat-shit insane.
To be quite frank, conservatives want to take the same approach to gay people that they take to immigrants. They want to make life so miserable for them that they leave the country on their own.
I think it’s time we find a nice planet in a far off galaxy and ship all the conservatives there to create their own little hell.
Corner Stone
@FlipYrWhig: The difference is that everyone knows what Medicare is, and a majority of people who use it like it.
Public Option was a term that was ripe for abuse because it didn’t define well.
Sue
@MadLurker:
You are absolutely right about the Milwaukee suburbs and N & E of the Milwaukee Metro area; they have a real fear of the People’s Republic of Madison around here, when they’re not being skeered of those welfare folks in Milwaukee. But I’ve seen enough of up north to gently disagree with you. Wisconsin has a good chance of a Republican governor next term, and a kind of hard-core one at that, because the two metro areas may not be enough to deliver and the rest of the state isn’t reliably liberal anymore, or progressive enough by any definition of that word.
geg6
OT, but if any of you are wondering if James Carville was right when he said that Pennsylvania is Pittsburgh in the West, Philadelphia in the East, and Alabama everywhere else, wonder no more:
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/today/index.ssf/2010/08/post_47.html
And I just can’t help but notice that this happened at a Catholic church’s carnival. And people wonder why I hate that church? Seriously?
parksideq
That’s pretty much how I saw the ruling. In response to black gossip blog Bossip’s twitter inquiry for opinions on the ruling, I responded thusly:
In short, I agree with every word of this post.
bemused
@BR:
That’s a good one. Most BJ’s could come up with a dozen excellent frames in one post. There’s no excuse for the Dems not to come up with better material.
Agoraphobic Kleptomaniac
“Medicare Buy-in” is a horrible name. It falls into the multi-year chant of repubs that Medicare is broken and broke. “They can’t manage Medicare for the few people that are on it now, we don’t want that for everyone!” etc etc.
P.S. Judge Walker is a human. Since he is ruling on Human issues, he should have recused himself. Great Lord Cthulu will now come down and rule (ahem) make his ruling for all courts.
PTirebiter
@debbie:
Neither, Gallagher knew exactly what she doing and Talk of the Nation was the place to do it.
I’m guessing the “progressive” host left MG’s gays are the real civil rights abusersframe go unchallenged.
Before the Breibart tape came out, Talk of the Nation had Mark Williams on to counterbalance their coverage of the NAACP statement. As if regular, Ruben Navaratta couldn’t be trusted to deliver the right-wing talking points.
R-Jud
@geg6: I voted on the “do you find this offensive” poll at your link. And guess how many said “no”?
27%.
Ash Can
@Spaghetti Lee: There are plenty of areas of Wisconsin that would make DuPage County look like 1960s Haight-Ashbury. Madison is pretty much the premier bastion of liberalism in the state because of the university. (Education fomenting rational thought and open-mindedness — whodathunk?)
ETA: Of course, Madlurker @#35 said it all, and far better. :)
And while you’re sampling the local media, John, don’t forget Wisconsin Public Radio (Madison’s FM station is WERN, at 88.7). Classical music through the day, NPR news and talk at supper time, and folky stuff at night.
Spaghetti Lee
@geg6:
Do I dare read the comments?
No, I don’t. And neither should any of you. I’m just trying to look out for your health.
And the sad thing is, 73% of respondents in a small-town Pennsylvania newspaper saying pretending to shoot the president is a bad thing? That’s more than I would have expected.
Paul in KY
@Stooleo: Wish I’d tried them when I was up there. I was too timid, I think.
P.S. Can’t get new Glarus in KY, and Jungle Jim’s up in Cincy didn’t carry it either :-(
Paul in KY
@MadLurker: Thank’s for the tip. As of right now, I’d have to travel 100s of miles to get some more. Should have brought home a few cases.
Paul in KY
@Spaghetti Lee: When I spent a week in the state, I was very, very impressed. I loved Madison. Now wish I had gone to school at UW.
Kristine
@Midnight Marauder: Thanks for that. I haven’t kept up with details of the case, but I read news online from various sources most every day, and saw no mention of this. Missed it.
Agoraphobic Kleptomaniac
@debbie: I heard his comments on Talk of the Nation as well. I nearly yanked out my earbuds in disgust that he just got to spew so many lies with nary a whisper from the host. I’m just glad that Dhalia Lithwick (SP?) was there 10 minutes later to say “It doesn’t matter if 99% of Californian’s think something, some matters can’t be decided by a vote.”
Patty K
Why aren’t you mentioning The Capital Times, “Your Progressive Voice?” I was a Republican when at Madison, in the 50’s, but even then I had a sneaking suspicion that it was the better paper….I loved the university, even the winters!
Sanka
That’s right! Who the hell do 7 million Californians think they are? Dumb rubes. Voting at the ballot box for what they want for their state. What a dumb concept!
Judge Walker knows better than the citizens do. Idiots.
How else can we c.rap on the Constitution?
Fargus
This is my point exactly. If rights are inalienable, and can’t be either granted or struck down, then all the judge did was stop the state from being allowed to withhold rights that gay people already possess (and have always possessed).
Mark F.
Another good New Glarus beer that I’d rec is their Yokel. I can’t find it all the time (must be seasonal?) but it’s real nice. Even though Spotted Cow is good, I think Yokel is better.
Comrade Kevin
@PTirebiter: The San Francisco Chronicle actually ran an op-ed by that Gallagher asshole today. I didn’t bother reading it.
gwangung
Which is the whole point of the court system. The Founding Fathers said so, explicitly.
Come on, dude, you can troll better than this.
Mnemosyne
@Sanka:
My state is now completely bankrupt because we decided to let the voters set budget priorities and also cut government revenue. But, hey, we also banned gay marriage, so it’s all cool to let voters decide everything, right?
Come tell anyone in the state of California about the “wisdom of the voters” and you’ll get laughed out of town.
Midnight Marauder
@gwangung:
No. They cannot.
t jasper parnell
@Patty K: The Cap Times is a weekly distributed inside of the State Journal, and, while I think it’s great that the headline is good, the State Journal is and the Cap Times before its collapse was crap. The Milwaukee Journal used to be good in the 70s and 80s but went rapidly down hill.
YellowJournalism
@Sanka:
Well, if you drank enough of yourself, I’m sure you could literally do the job right. Or, since you’re full of shit, you could just throw yourself at it.
Too many bigots online today. I’m sick of it.
Original Lee
@Mark S.: The reason for using “active practitioner of the homosexual lifestyle” is because some of the more conservative denominations recognize that just being born homosexual is not inherently evil – it’s acting on your unnatural urges that makes you evil. So if he were a celibate gay, a portion of the base would actually not have a lot of difficult with him ruling on the case. Maybe.
Uncle Clarence Thomas
I don’t understand how they can make gay marriage legal when the President is 100% against it.
debbie
@Sanka:
The judge rightfully said that the 7 million citizens do not have the right to discriminate against a minority. Now that’s upholding the Constitution, not crapping on it.
asiangrrlMN
@debbie: Yup. It’s how slavery was overturned. It’s how antimiscegenation laws were overturned. It’s how separate, but equal was overturned. It’s part of what the court is supposed to do–protect the minority against the tyranny of the majority. It’s how we fucking roll in the U S of A.
I like “Judge affirms rights of gays”, too. It’s a statement, not a reaction.
Sanka
Really? Wow. I didn’t know gay partners had been enslaved for 400 years by Europeans just because they were
blacka minority race.debbie
@ Sanka:
Sorry the context escapes you. Discrimination of any kind is a violation of the Constitution.