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VICTORY! Poor Harry Jackson; where’s he going to take his religion-based homophobic road show now? (Huff Post):
The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from opponents of same-sex marriage who want to overturn the District of Columbia’s gay marriage law.The court did not comment Tuesday in turning away a challenge from a Maryland pastor and others who are trying to get a measure on the ballot to allow Washingtonians to vote on a measure that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.
Bishop Harry Jackson led a lawsuit against the district’s Board of Elections and Ethics after it refused to put that initiative on the ballot. The board ruled that the ballot question would in effect authorize discrimination.
Reaction from HRC:
“Today’s action by the Supreme Court makes abundantly clear that D.C.’s human rights protections are strong enough to withstand the hateful efforts of outside anti-LGBT groups to put people’s basic civil rights on the ballot,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “For almost two years, the National Organization for Marriage and the Alliance Defense Fund, along with Bishop Harry Jackson, have fought a losing battle to shamelessly harm gay and lesbian couples in D.C. who seek nothing more than to share in the rights and responsibilities of marriage. The D.C. Council and Mayor courageously made marriage equality a reality last year, and the courts have since upheld the rights of D.C. residents to govern ourselves and take the necessary steps to eliminate discrimination in our community.”The Supreme Court’s denial of certiorari today leaves standing a D.C. Court of Appeals decision issued last October that determined the Council acted within its authority when more than thirty years ago it established a requirement that proposed ballot initiatives may not authorize, or have the effect of authorizing, discrimination prohibited by the D.C. Human Rights Act. The Court further held that an initiative on same-sex marriage would impermissibly permit discrimination against gays and lesbians in the District.
In December 2009, the D.C. Council overwhelmingly passed the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Act of 2009. The bill was signed by Mayor Adrian Fenty, transmitted to Congress for review and became law on March 3, 2010. The first marriages between same-sex couples were performed less than a week later. Since then hundreds of same-sex couples have been married in D.C.
With today’s decision from the Supreme Court, marriage equality opponents have reached the end of their legal wrangling. The D.C. Board of Elections, Superior Court, Court of Appeals and now the U.S. Supreme Court have rejected their meritless and tired arguments that they should be permitted to impose a discriminatory ballot measure on D.C. voters.
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The Upside for Harry JacksonAt least now the poor fellow can stop maintaining the guise that he is a resident of Washington D.C. and he can re-register to vote in his state of residence, Maryland, where he will surely turn his attention in the upcoming marriage equality legislation show-down.
I’m pleasantly surprised!I was apprehensive about the outcome of this. On the one hand, SCOTUS should have (and apparently did) limit the scope of this case to the issue at hand – that is, whether a ballot initiative can be placed on the ballot if it would result in violating D.C. Human Rights Act. It would have been so easy for some of the justices to get all caught up with “but it’s about same-sex marriage!!!”
It makes me a little bit more hopeful for the day when Prop 8 reaches the Supreme Court.
I thinkMaryland should distract him by passing gender identity inclusive nondiscrimination law first.
looks likethe nondiscrimination bill is also going to be reintroduced this year. harry jackson will certainly have his hands full.
Poor HarryHe’ll just have to seek consolation from his
boyfriendroommate.I’m still more cautious regarding Prop 8.This is definitely good for DC — but I’m not sure how much Prop 8′s appearance before SCOTUS will resemble it. If it looked like the Prop 8 case were going to swing on the question of standing, it might be encouraging — because it says the SCOTUS is willing to rule based on the actual legal questions that are placed before them. OTOH, the appeals courts in the Prop 8 case seem to be aiming at making equal rights for LGB people the immediate legal question — and most of the SCOTUS judges would rather cut off their own hands than sign anything implying any rights beyond mere existence, if that. Once the actual legal question involved is legal rights, at the very least justices Scalia, Alito, Roberts, and Thomas will be thinking not about how to rule but about how many decades they can set us back, depending on how far they can get another justice to go along with them. At the very least, they’ll be looking for an excuse to guarantee permanent second-class status.
Marriage Equality in MD is his next target.Along with NOM I am sure that the old Catholics in Baltimore will be getting out their bigots to lobby Annapolis.
Sadly, it’s not over…We still have to worry about Congress. Ly’in Brian Brown has come out and said he will now turn his attention to Congress and pressure them to force a referendum upon the city through riders placed on DC’s appropriation bills. An ominous cloud is going to hang over this city for a long time to come.
Wouldn’t that have to be confirmed by the Senate?If so, then shouldn’t DC be in the clear for at least the next few years?
Well…That would depend. There will have to be compromise to get any legislation through in the next two years. When looking at all the ways that Senate Democrats could compromise, it would be really easy for them to negotiate away the rights of people who aren’t their constituents rather than giving up something their own voters care about.
We’re going to have to be vigilant and vocal to make sure this doesn’t happen.