Tag Archives: California

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Marriage Equality


By  ThinkProgress War Room

All Eyes on the Supreme Court

As we discussed yesterday, this week the Supreme Court  is hearing oral arguments in two historic marriage equality cases. Today, the High Court heard arguments about California’s Proposition 8. Thousands of supporters of equality turned out to make their voices heard.

Here’s a few snaps of today’s action outside the Supreme Court:

There were plenty of colorful signs at today’s rally. Here’s a few of our favorites:

You can check out many, many more here.

In addition to being outside the Court, ThinkProgress Justice Editor and constitutional analyst Ian Millhiser was inside the room this morning. You should definitely check out his full analysis of today’s argument.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

Justice Scalia’s embarrassingly intolerant attitude toward gays.

In other Supreme Court news, the police can’t bring drug-sniffing dogs to your door.

On Fox News, Amanda Knox got twice as much attention today as marriage equality.

Ten Democratic senators who still say no to marriage equality.

North Dakota essentially banned abortion today, but it has even bigger threats to access waiting in the wings.

Six Democratic senators on the fence about universal background checks.

Study: refusing to expand Medicaid could leave 200,000 low-income veterans uninsured.

Organizing for Action is pushing for public financing of political campaigns in New York state.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Will the Supreme Court Say I Do?


By  ThinkProgress War Room

Supreme Court to Take Up Historic Marriage Equality Cases

Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in the first of two historic cases dealing with marriage equality. Here’s what you need to know about these two cases and how the High Court could come down.

Case #1 (Tuesday): Hollingsworth v. Perry

At issue: California’s Proposition 8, the same-sex marriage ban approved by California voters in 2008.

Legal Questions:

  • Is it unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause for California to prohibit marriage equality?
  • California’s governor and attorney general stopped defending the measure several years ago, so a group of cities and Prop. 8 proponents stepped in to defend the law in their place. The Supreme Court must decide if it was even proper for this group to have been allowed to do so in the first place.

Possible Outcomes:

  • Marriage equality for everyone, everywhere
  • Marriage equality in some places now, everywhere else later. One route proposed by the Obama administration would result in marriage equality right now in California and other states that have civil union laws that are essentially marriage in everything but name. Legally speaking, if California’s ban is deemed unconstitutional, bans in other states would then also be difficult to defend. As the president said recently, he can’t think of any reason why any state’s ban should be valid.
  • Marriage equality just in California. The Court could tailor a narrow opinion that invalidates Prop. 8, but doesn’t really advance jurisprudence in a way that is particularly useful anywhere else.
  • Marriage equality in California, probably. The Court could use the second question about legal standing to dodge making a decision on the merits, which would leave the district court decision invalidating Prop. 8 in place. There are some unresolved questions about how this particular approach would play out.
  • No marriage equality in California, at least for now. The Court could reverse the lower courts and leave Prop. 8 in place. The only way it could then be undone is by voters through yet another ballot measure or in a future Supreme Court case heard by a more progressive Court. A poll out last week found that 61 percent of California’s now support marriage equality, making this route likely to succeed if also costly, time-consuming, and limited only to California.

For more details on how the Court could strike down Prop. 8, check out ThinkProgress’ legal analysis HERE.

Case #2 (Wednesday): United States v. Windsor

At Issue: The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the 1996 law that bars federal recognition of same-sex marriages.

Legal Questions:

  • Whether Section 3 of DOMA, the part of the law that bars the federal government from recognizing same-sex couples for purposes of taxation, federal benefits, and more than 1,000 other rights or responsibilities, violates the legal married same couples’ guarantees of equal protection under the Fifth Amendment.
  • As with the Prop. 8 case, there are technical legal questions about whether the Supreme Court is even allowed to hear the case. First, can the Court hear the case since the executive branch already agrees with lower courts that the law is unconstitutional? After the Department of Justice stopped defending the law, House Republicans took up the cause of defending discrimination and have spent millions of taxpayer dollars doing so. The Court must decide if House Republicans are allowed, legally speaking, to stand in for the executive branch.

Possible Outcomes:

  • Marriage equality for everyone. The Court could simply rule that DOMA is unconstitutional because everyone has a constitutional right to marry the partner of their choice.
  • Marriage equality in some places. The Court could strike down DOMA and allow legally married same-sex couples to receive the same federal benefits as straight couples, but not rule on whether there is a broader constitutional right to marriage equality. Depending on how strongly worded such a decision is, it could make it difficult to defend other anti-gay laws and state marriage bans. Another version of this outcome could be decided on the basis of the Tenth Amendment, but this would establish a highly unfortunate precedent that could be dangerous for the social safety net.
  • Muddled mess. If the Court decides that it lacks jurisdiction for either or both of the reasons mentioned above, nobody is quite sure what exactly will happen. It’s possible that DOMA could remain valid everywhere but New York and New England (the federal circuit courts where the challenges were initiated). Another theory says the Obama administration could refuse to enforce the law, but then that still leaves open the possibility that a future anti-gay President Rubio could revive the law.
  • No change. The Court could disagree with the various lower courts that invalidated DOMA and find it to be constitutional. In this case, the only ways to get rid of DOMA would be a future case before a less conservative Supreme Court or Congressional repeal of DOMA. Senators and members of the House have already introduced a bill, the Respect for Marriage Act, to accomplish the latter.

For more details on how the Court could dump DOMA, check out ThinkProgress’ legal analysis HERE.

Stay tuned: ThinkProgress reporters will be both inside and outside the Supreme Court tomorrow and we’ll be bringing you live updates.

Get Involved: Sign Our Brief Telling the Supreme Court to Dump DOMA

Our partners at the Center for American Progress signed onto a legal brief against DOMA. Will you support their brief by signing on, and say that you won’t stand for the unconstitutional discrimination against LGBT people?

Sign HERE to tell the Supreme Court that DOMA must go.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

Former Bush administration official slams top social conservative over opposition to marriage equality.

Virginia Democratic senator backs marriage equality.

Watch: the most compelling case for marriage equality in under a minute.

Another NFL player speaks out for marriage equality.

Thirteen offensive things Justice Scalia has compared homosexuality to.

Majority of Ohioans back marriage equality, want to overturn state’s 2004 ban on marriage equality.

Missouri Democratic senator backs marriage equality.

Puff pieces profiling paid marriage equality opponents plague the mainstream media.

The NRA is flooding Newtown with robocalls opposing gun violence prevention measures.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

John Hocevar, Greenpeace


 

Greenpeace  
 
 

The National Marine Fisheries Service wants to allow fishing nets known as “walls of death” in crucial leatherback turtle habitat.

Take Action
Act now to tell them to protect this endangered species.

take action today

Endangered leatherback turtles migrate 6,000 miles across the Pacific each year, and at the end of their journey looms a deadly threat.

Drift gillnets, known as “walls of death,” float just off the California coast. While their purpose is to catch swordfish, these nets ensnare and drown more than a hundred marine mammals a year. Rare sharks and endangered sea turtles are also among the casualties.

Leatherback turtles can currently take refuge in a small conservation area, but not for much longer. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is working to shrink this safe space—a move that threatens the survival of their species.

NMFS has tried to rollback conservation areas before, and has only backed down when facing fierce public opposition. Together, we can stop NMFS again, and help leatherback turtles stave off extinction.

Send a message to NMFS to tell them that conservation areas for endangered leatherback turtles should be expanded, not put in jeopardy.

Around the world, the leatherback population is plummeting due to careless fishing practices. Even though leatherbacks have thrived for millions of years, scientists predict it won’t last another 20 years if we don’t act. At this point, even one leatherback killed is too many.

And these nets are not just killers for leatherbacks. Whales, sea lions, dolphins, and other endangered species become entangled and die every year. For every one pound of swordfish caught by these gillnets, 27 pounds of other marine species die pointlessly.

We must keep waging battles with those who plunder our fisheries rather than manage them—whether it is off the California coast, in the frigid waters of the Bering Sea or in the fisheries of the Atlantic—to secure our oceans’ future.

Act now and tell NMFS that you want stronger protections for the leatherback turtle and other species near these dangerous fisheries.

Overfishing, climate change, and ocean acidification threaten to turn our oceans into deserts. Greenpeace is working for a future where overfishing has ceased, while endangered species like the leatherback turtle can flourish in protected marine reserves.

Every short-sighted and profit-driven decision we stop is another step towards true protection of the ocean ecosystems that nourish us.

Let’s bring down these “walls of death.”

For the oceans,

John Hocevar
Greenpeace USA Ocean Campaign Director
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

The Tide is Shifting Because of YOU!


endangeredWhales

Dearest Friends:

by Lyndia Storey

Today in San Diego,  the California Coastal Commission said “NO” to the Navy and their plan to deploy bombs and sonar sound off the Coastline that would likely injure, maim or kill millions of cetaceans over the next 5 years. They said that the Navy’s position is inadequate and unsupported by facts. They also said that the Navy did not keep its agreements in the past and that there was no point in making a compromise with them. In attendance were Lyndia, Lance and Kim of Whale and Dolphin Watch, several representatives from NRDC, Greenpeace, many other ocean organizations and dozens of individuals from near and far.

Although the decision only affects California waters, it is still significant as it sets a major precedent for the whole country.  This will have far reaching implications for what can be done next, and ultimately the safety of our cetacean friends, the health of our oceans and our planet. In this case, your 2deaddolphins

participation may have shifted the tide that has so long moved in the direction of disrespect and outright disregard for our oceans. We hear from a major environmental organization that your signatures have energized this movement in a big way!!!

We are not done with this issue yet. This week end is our last chance for signatures on our petition to go to NOAA/National Marine Fisheries on Monday. Will you help us out?

Here’s what we want you to do next:

  1. 1. Call and network with your friends and get them to sign this last petition
  2.    2.  Post on your Facebook page
  3.     3. Go to our Facebook page and like us (link on our website)
  4.     4. Sign up for ongoing information on our website to keep abreast of this issue

Here is the link: http://www.whaleanddolphinwatch.com

From the bottom of our hearts, we wanted to say a big ‘Thank You” for your signature on our petitions and your ongoing support. You are awesome people and we are deeply humbled by your support of our oceans.

Lyndia, Lance, Kim and Wes

~ FDA/USDA ~~ Alerts & Safety, ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA).


03/01/2013 08:02 PM EST

 

Food For Life Baking Company of Corona, California is recalling 15,369 cases of Ezekiel 4:9 Sprouted Grain Cereal shipped between November 20, 2012 to February 11, 2013, because the product may be mislabeled and may contain an undeclared allergen – almond:
 
03/01/2013 08:07 PM EST
See’s Candies, Inc. of San Francisco, Calif., is recalling one code of 1.7 ounce Divinity Easter Egg with Walnuts, because some boxes labeled Divinity with Walnuts may actually contain Peanut Butter Eggs. People who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to peanuts run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume this product.