Points of view on the DOMA decision today

DOMA/Prop 8: States Win, People Lose  "The Supreme Court's rulings Wednesday on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and Proposition 8 are being viewed as a limited victory for advocates of same-sex marriage--and also for federalism. The Court's decision to strike down DOMA means that a federal definition of marriage cannot trump a state definition, and that same-sex marriages in some states will be honored by others. Its decision to refuse to rule on Prop 8 means that lower court rulings against it will stand, effectively legalizing same-sex marriage in California."

Scalia's Blistering Dissent on DOMA  "In a ripping dissent, Scalia says that Justice Anthony Kennedy and his colleagues in the majority have resorted to calling opponents of gay marriage "enemies of the human race." "

NRO: More Than Marriage Is at Stake Now  "The Proposition 8 ruling is the most disturbing. Though the Court chose not to rule on the merits, it did establish a terrible precedent, ruling that citizens who pass an initiative do not have the legal right or standing to defend that law when elected officials refuse to do their job and defend the duly enacted law in court."

Justice Scalia on the DOMA decision.  "In a blistering rebuke of the Supreme Court decision to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act, Justice Antonin Scalia said the self-governing power of the people has been eroded."

Volokh Conspiracy; Federalism Marries Liberty in the DOMA Decision   "For now, federalism wins out in theory as well as in practice.  States are free to define marriage as they wish (subject to Equal Protection and Due Process clause restraints), and the fight over “gay marriage” will continue in the states for years, as other litigation winds its way back to the Court.  So far, this process of federalism has been beneficial to the cause of same-sex marriage in a number of respects, not least of which is the perceived legitimacy of same-sex marriage in states where it has been adopted by legislation or popular initiative.  But whether this bodes good or ill for same-sex marriage, it is a visible demonstration that federalism need not be just for conservatives.

Supreme Court Clears Way for Gay Marriage in Calif
"The Supreme Court has cleared the way for same-sex marriage in California by holding that defenders of California's gay marriage ban did not have the right to appeal lower court rulings striking down the ban."

Obama Says He Won’t Force Christian Churches to Hold Gay Weddings… Not Yet Anyway

Catholic Bishops: Supreme Court DOMA Decision a “Tragic Day for Marriage and Our Nation”   "Wait til Obama starts forcing Catholic churches to conduct gay marriages.
"The bishops will love that."


Left Coast Rebel: SCOTUS Rules Favorably on DOMA, Not Going Far Enough the Justices Tossed it Back To the States...  " Unfortunately the "... several congressional Republicans — including Ohio Sen. Rob Portman — have endorsed same-sex marriage" are in the decided minority. Therein lies one the reason the republican party is rapidly losing much of the nation to the Libertarian Party and the Democratic Party." 

Gay marriage unlikely to be a focus of 2014 elections   "After the Supreme Court Wednesday struck down the Defense of Marriage Act and cleared the way for gay marriages to resume in California, GOP strategists said same-sex marriage will have a bit part in the midterms. Obamacare and the size of government will be a much keener focus."

Clinton Hails Supreme Court Overturning Law He Signed

Man marries dog

Let's see how well President Obama is looking after this nation today

NRO; Obama’s Failing Foreign Policy   "His credibility is crumbling, across the board."

 

Not a fan of the TEA Party

Radical Muslim Cleric honored with White House meeting  "Schoolchildren may still be unable to visit the White House, but radical Muslim cleric Sheik Abdullah Bin Bayyah was welcomed and attended a June 13 meeting with National Security Advisor Tom Donilon and White House communications director Jennifer Palmieri."
....
"The White House has a lot of explaining ahead on this outrageous honor accorded Bin Bayyah. Without the work of the IPT, we would not have known of it."

Obama Renews His War On Coal  "Don’t say he didn’t warn us: “Go ahead and build a coal-powered plant — but it will bankrupt you.” Today President Obama put those words into action. With poverty and unemployment at record levels and his foreign policy in tatters, Obama decided to address a more important problem: Americans aren’t paying enough for electricity! So he mounted a new attack on coal, America’s principal source of power."
Obama Announces Plan to Save the Earth from a Problem That Doesn’t Exist

James Pethokoukis; Obama wants action on climate change in the worst way — and that’s what the US is getting  " Listening to President Obama’s big climate-change policy speech, one would never realize that climate-change science has been going through a rough patch. For the past 15 years, as The Economist recently noted, Earth’s surface air temperature has unexpectedly been flat even as greenhouse-gas emissions have continued to soar. Climatologists are befuddled." 

NRO editorial; Obama’s Radical Climate Agenda   "President Barack Obama has decided to make the issue a new focus of his troubled presidency — and, indeed, that he intends to use the issue as the launching pad for a radical extension of federal power even more significant than his health-care takeover."

 

Obama Risks the Economy for the Sake of His EPA Legacy

The Fiscal Times  "Like a teenager with $20 in his pocket, President Obama cannot spend our natural gas bonanza fast enough.

"We could use our newfound cheap energy to drive a manufacturing renaissance and create jobs, but the president wants to squander it combatting pollution. Heather Zichal, White House coordinator for energy and climate change, explains the president’s motivation: “He knows this is a legacy issue.”

"In a major address on energy and the environment at Georgetown University, Mr. Obama said he will direct the EPA to set emissions standards on power plants – limits that will drive up electricity costs, tax our economy and slow growth. This, despite the fact that CO2 emissions in the U.S. have dropped 12 percent in the past five years, are down to 1996 levels, and may well have peaked." Read more... 

Americans Oppose 'Obamacare,' Social Security for Illegal Immigrants Made Legal by Reform

National Journal Magazine   "Who would get welfare and other benefits under immigration reform is a complicated and still-unanswered question, with Congress far from done debating immigration legislation. But what Americans think of the idea is suddenly much clearer.

".... more than two-thirds of all Americans and nine out of every 10 Republicans oppose making legalized immigrants "eligible for government benefits ... before they become citizens," confirming the issue's potency as one of the main political attacks against immigration reform supporters in 2014."

The, like, decline and, y'know, fall of the English major

NY Times

"In the past few years, I’ve taught nonfiction writing to undergraduates and graduate students.... Each semester I hope, and fear, that I will have nothing to teach my students because they already know how to write. And each semester I discover, again, that they don’t.

"They can assemble strings of jargon and generate clots of ventriloquistic syntax. They can meta-metastasize any thematic or ideological notion they happen upon. And they get good grades for doing just that. But as for writing clearly, simply, with attention and openness to their own thoughts and emotions and the world around them — no."