Uh oh, Seattleblues is gonna say some mean things and then disappear from SLOG in a huff for several weeks.

Dominoes, dominoes, dominoes
Tipping point, tipping point =
WAHOO!!

@ 1 - That would be a marvelous side effect of marriage equality sweeping all the land.........

New from The Learning Channel, "Sister Husbands."

@1:

Perhaps they can just save some time and disappear NOW...

And on a more serious note: given the way these rulings are coming fast-and-furious, at what point does the federal government metaphorically throw up its hands and fully recognize Marriage Equality? When a majority of states pass ME laws? And what about those hold-out states? Will federal recognition negate state laws banning Marriage Equality?

@ 4, the real question is, when will SCOTUS finally rule on this? And how?

"no rational reason" -- sounds like rational basis review, but I've not read anything other than this post, so....

The New Mexico court apparently applied intermediate scrutiny and decided on state constitutional grounds.

Utah? New Mexico I was expecting, but Utah?

@7,

To be fair, one guy in Utah. Hopefully he'll be affirmed, but it's not like it was passed by a majority of Utah's citizens or legislators.

Well, as an Oregonian this is just embarrassing. Here's to the 2014 ballot measure passing!

Good for them. Any state that went out of its way to ban same sex marriage will probably find those laws being struck down and good luck taking that to the Supreme Court of the USA.

Maybe they can get Duck Dynasty to cry them a river.

Utah gets co-habitation and marriage equality - talk about a Christmas Miracle!

And the same bolt of lightning that struck New Mexico and sank it into the sea will now strike Utah.

co-habitation and marriage equality - the Mormon promised land may become the polyamorous promised land!

SCOTUS provided a lot of momentum for the marriage equality movement. They can now use those arguments to overturn ME bans everywhere. Eventually, one of those rulings will make its way back to SCOTUS, and they can then finish the job. In the meantime, more and more people will jump on the ME bandwagon. The more popular support there is, when the final ruling is issued, the more smoothly the process will go in those final hold-out states.

From 2004 through 2011 6 states and DC legalized marriage equality. In 2012 3 more states (yay Washington) were added. We added 8 states in 2013. The tipping point has been reached. Now it is just a matter of keeping the ball rolling. It WILL happen.

Now we need to convince Obama to cut off all aid to Uganda.

The fact that the judge cited Scalia's tantrum in the Windsor dissent as part of this justification for overturning the Utah ban is just delicious, delicious, delicious...

"The Constitution’s protection of the individual rights of gay and lesbian citizens is equally dispositive whether this protection requires a court to respect a state law, as in
Windsor, or strike down a state law, as the Plaintiffs ask the court to do here. In his dissenting opinion, the Honorable Antonin Scalia recognized that this result was the logical outcome of the Court’s ruling in Windsor

SCALIA 'In my opinion, however, the view that this
Court will take of state prohibition of same-sex marriage is indicated beyond mistaking by today’s opinion. As I havesaid, the real rationale of today’s opinion . . . is that DOMA is motivated by “bare. . . desire to harm” couples in same-sex marriages. How easy it is, indeed how inevitable, to reach the same conclusion with regard to state laws denying same-sex couples marital status.133 S. Ct. at 2709 (citations and internal quotation marks omitted)'

THE COURSE AGREES WITH JUSTICE SCALIA'S INTERPRETATION OF WINDSOR and finds that the important federalism concerns at issue hereare nevertheless insufficient to save a state-law prohibition that denies the Plaintiffs their rights to due process and equal protection under the law"

@6: no, the judge found that strict scrutiny applies.

@18, good shit. Just looked quickly through the decision. The court applied strict scrutiny to the Due Process challenge and, as to the Equal Protection challenge, the court "finds that it need not apply heightened scrutiny here because Amendment 3 fails under even the most deferential level of review."

@19: I think SCOTUS is going to keep tap dancing around the level of scrutiny until the last overt state-sanctioned homophobia is swept aside, and new covert forms start appearing. That happened in Madrid recently; it being illegal to discriminate openly against LGBT, the conservative mayor started levying huge fines against Pride on the pretext of noise pollution. At that point they're finally going to be forced to apply the same rules of scrutiny to us that they've long since applied to other suspect classes.

The state government can suck it, but here's what the article reports:

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert released a statement that said he was "very disappointed an activist federal judge is attempting to override the will of the people of Utah" and said he would work with Acting Attorney General Brian L. Tarbet "to determine the best course to defend traditional marriage within the borders of Utah."

And about that Acting Attorney General: the former AG resigned last month, and here's him in the news today.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/re…

But it's really cool that the county clerks were standing by ready to accept applications.

So happy to be a Utahn tonight! #BYUalum4marriage

@20, didn't know about Madrid. Thanks