General Discussion

DonViejo

(60,536 posts) Tue May 20, 2014, 03:46 PM May 2014

Bush-Appointed Judge Cites Scalia In Axing Pennsylania Gay Marriage Ban

SAHIL KAPUR – MAY 20, 2014, 3:16 PM EDT

Upon striking down Pennsylvania's gay marriage ban Tuesday, a federal judge cited Justice Antonin Scalia's "cogent" argument that the Supreme Court had essentially paved the way for nationwide marriage equality last year.

Here's the relevant passage from George W. Bush-appointed Judge John E. Jones III in his 39-page opinion:

As Justice Scalia cogently remarked in his dissent, “if Windsor is meant to be an equal-protection opinion, it is a confusing one.” Windsor, 133 S. Ct. at 2706 (Scalia, J., dissenting). Although Windsor did not identify the appropriate level of scrutiny, its discussion is manifestly not representative of deferential review. See id. (Scalia, J., dissenting) (observing that “the Court certainly does not apply anything that resembles the rational-basis framework” (emphasis omitted)). The Court did not evaluate hypothetical justifications for the law but rather focused on the harm resulting from DOMA, which is inharmonious with deferential review.

It was a reference to Scalia's scathing dissent against the Court's 5-4 opinion that struck down a portion of the Defense of Marriage Act which prohibited federal recognition of same-sex marriages. The Reagan-appointed justice warned that the majority decision -- despite officially staying neutral on whether gay marriage was a Constitutional right -- relied upon reasoning that would lead to that conclusion.

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/judge-cites-scalia-pennsylvania-gay-marriage