Show trials

Pro-discrimination forces rarely have logical arguments on their side, so it is not unusual for them to resort to dis-coherence:

Opponents of same-sex marriage have long said the issue does not belong in the courts. Lately they have gone a step further.

They say Judge Vaughn R. Walker, the chief judge of the Federal District Court in San Francisco, made a serious mistake by calling for a trial in a challenge to California’s ban on same-sex marriage rather than deciding the case based on paper submissions.

“To think that somehow the rules of evidence can lead you to the right answer is just not right,” said Jordan W. Lorence, a lawyer with Alliance Defense Fund and a member of the trial team for the people and groups who intervened to defend the ban after state officials would not. “There should not have been a trial.”

The trial took place in January, but Judge Walker has not yet scheduled closing arguments. In the meantime, the defendants and their allies are calling the legitimacy of the proceedings into question.

Lorence is right, of course. The rules of evidence will never lead one to an answer pro-discrimination forces would consider "right."

Typical that they would call the legitimacy of the trial into question just before closing arguments -- you might suspect they think they're going to lose.

But that would be cynical.

Can the majority marry the minority? Cause they sure enjoy screwing them.

Steven Goldman very eloquently demolishes the illogic of the Yes on Prop8 vote and anti-gay marriage generally. To put it briefly, it's called the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

UPDATE: Helps to actually have a hyperlink.

No, we shouldn't have

It would be wrong of me not to mention the sad results yesterday of Prop 8 in Cali. And I'll wait to see more evidence of this, but it would be a shame if the record turnout inspired by Obama was partly to blame. As T-NC wrote,

I've been working my way through this thing on blacks, homophobia and marriage equality. I don't regret any of my arguments. But, this is hard to take:

Every ethnic group supported marriage equality, except African-Americans, who voted overwhelmingly against extending to gay people the civil rights once denied them: a staggering 69 - 31 percent African-American margin against marriage equality.

I've given my take many times, and I stand by it, though it should be said I was wrong about Latinos. Still on a gut, emotional level, this makes me sick. If someone wants to give me a reason why gay people shouldn't be able to marry that doesn't, at its root, boil down to "yuck," I guess I'd love to hear it. But really that isn't the point. I've always maintained that you don't have to like black people to do the right thing. Same thing here. I'm not very interested in folks's homophobia. I'm interested in why they think they should be in the business of dictating terms of love to two consenting adults. It's disgusting. And we need to let this shit go. There may be great, sound reasons beyond--the blacks are pathological!!--to explain this. But there are no great, sound reasons that excuse it. Cut this shit out. We know better. Even if other people didn't.

What I don't get (and should probably do some homework), is how voters can overturn a state supreme decision that states it's a state constitutional right?

At least farm animals may get a better deal in the state.