Here Come Da Judge

After the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act in 2013, federal court after court has invalidated state bans against same-sex marriage. Eventually, some judge was going to rule the other way and it’s finally happened in, what a shock, Louisiana. Of course the reasons the Judge gives for finding the state ban Constitutional are (1) long-invalidated, irrational nonsense, and (2) legally suspect, including an obvious misquote of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Political operatives seeking to cast aspersions on Feldman’s approach to gay rights will find a lot to work with in his opinion. At one point, he describes being gay as one of several “lifestyle choices” a person can make. At another point in his opinion, he compares same-sex marriage to marriage between “aunt and niece,” “aunt and nephew,” or “father and child.” He also likens marriage equality to polygamous marriages.

Judge Feldman’s opinion also misuses common legal phrases in ways that suggest he may be unfamiliar with, or, at least, unaccustomed to working with, rudimentary concepts of American constitutional law. …

Feldman is a really old Reagan appointee, which may explain why he’s made such a bonehead, obviously political, decision. This all but assures that the Supreme Court will have to make the final decision on the issue. Not that we haven’t expected that anyway.