Page 6 - Windsor Case News Today

Making the case for voting rights act, that being covered on the national news, it will be hard for republicans to turn their back on someone like that. and i think there are people within the democratic caucus within the house who have the moral stature to get this done, to make it the legacy. to say 50 years weve made a lot of progress but we had 200 years of slavery, 100 years of jim crow. if we want to get to the post racial future we still need protections to go there. >> we have the issue ...

Tough political way make gay rights an issue that they could be used -- used as a wedge issue against president clinton. this was an effort by bob dole, who was head of the republican party that year, to try to insert gay rights into the 1996 presidential election and to use it as a wedge issue against president clinton. >> right. so, the background on it was there was a case in hawaii that was suggesting that possibly hawaii would legalize same-sex marriage. a republican issue ated thing well h...

Discrimination. there was a -- quite a extensive argument going on in the white house at the time, key veto it? what would that mean? could he allow it to become law without signing it? because you dont have to veto -- its not your only option. you can just let it sit, a pocket veto. what were the other options? but, you know, at the time youve got to remember, there were -- there were only 14 members of the u.s. senate who voted against this bill. a veto would have been overridden. there was no...

Jurisdiction. as to whether there are five votes there or not i think that the five justices who joined the windsor opinion put language in that opinion and wrote an opinion that is i think a very strong opinion for gay rights and at least gives us clues as to how they might vote in the future. but it seems that they are not ready to do that right now because they decided to completely steer clear of that question in the hollingsworth case. >> do you think, amy, do you think that were going to s...

Well, thats what the problem is. that youve been granted equal rights and then the federal government comes in and says, you dont have them anymore. so theres going to be a question of what this means when a state hasnt granted any rights at all. so the 38 or 37 states that havent granted marriage equality, were going to have to litigate that and see what happens going forward. >> and kenji, literally, writing a book on prop 8. >> i am indeed. >> so i want to get your analysis of this, and very ...

Since massachusetts has allowed same-sex marriage. none, literally none, zero of the predictions of negative effects have come true. so this is one more case of reality defeating prejudice. >> i just want to say, and stay with us for a second, congressman, we are learning from pete williams that justice scalia is reading from the bench, so it will be a little while, at least a few minutes, before we get the actual prop 8 ruling. but i know racheled wanted to talk. >> just a clarifying question o...

Years. actually, after the oral argument, you mentioned the supreme court. they came down to 44 steps of the supreme court and one of her lawyers said this is one step for every year this couple has been together. so that means that, you know, when her wife passed away, they were next of kin, in the eyes of new york state. but they were legal strangers in the eyes of the federal government and she got hit with a $363,000 estate tax she would not have had to pay. >> she would have paid zero if sh...

Seeing over the internet about the case seem to suggest that justice kennedy has -- is enunciating a brand new standard. >> i want to bring in evan wilson, founder and president of freedom to marry. this is the only organization thats devoted solely to legalizing gay marriage. good morning, thanks for joining us. and your reaction. >> its a momentous day for america. its a momentous day for american families. the court did the right thing today. they got it wrong yesterday. but today was a big o...

>> is that what you read into this, kenji? >> i havent read, so im just going off petes report. one of the things that was predicted was that the court would say, this case may or may not be mare torous. this is a challenge to californias ban on same-sex marriage. youre not the right people to bring it. because like president obama, governor schwarzenegger said he would enforce but not defend. >> they could essentially bring back same-sex marriage to california if thats the case within weeks. >>...

Everybody is expecting some of the rulings to be handed down on monday, but with so many cases to be announced, the justices will have to add at least one day after monday in order to make the announcements. the big cases everybody is waiting on, are still outstanding, affirmative action, called fisher versus texas, the court has to look at the admissions, justice kagan had to recuse herself from that. also still outstanding, a backbone civil rights law in our country, the voting rights act by w...