California's top court overturns gay marriage ban

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by KSigkid

The thing is, though, he wasn't muddling at all; he brought up some perfectly valid points. The thread isn't just a "do you like/do you not like gay marriage," it's about the court case that decided the issue in CA. When you look at the court's reasoning, it opens the door to the issues that MysticCat mentioned. Whether or not you see a commonality, when you read the court's opinion, it leaves things extremely wide open for skilled litigators.

Exactly. I'm convinced such lawsuits will be brought. If courts are going to go down this road, they have to anticipate the arguments that will be made based on their decisions. Legislatures have to consider them as well.

Originally Posted by KSigkid

Also, could everyone stop with the ridiculous criticisms of the Northern/Southern educational systems?

- graduate of the CT educational system who seems to have done ok, and who understands that there are some great, and not so great, schools in both the North and South.

Aw, but GonniePDT49 was leaving himself so wide open for it.

Nevertheless, out of deference to you, no more jokes.

[KSig RC]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Exactly. I'm convinced such lawsuits will be brought. If courts are going to go down this road, they have to anticipate the arguments that will be made based on their decisions. Legislatures have to consider them as well.

It seems simple in concept - the Court simply notes that current definitions of marriage (as between a man and a woman) violate equal protection requirements (presuming the CA ERA allows equal protection for homosexuals), and that the legal definition of marriage should include any two people.

Any other corner cases are not a protected class, at least not that I know of, and the Court prevents itself from future action (whether polygamist or simply relying on an alternate definition).

Now, this is clearly quite pie-in-the-sky (and doesn't really remove the problem of recognition between different states), as the Court has seemingly rejected such a "simple" solution to date and it would seem awkward to assume this didn't occur to the Court, but I certainly think it's possible to avoid any sort of snowball effect in such a ruling.