Vote. Vote Blue. And Here's Why, AGAIN!

It’s been a few weeks since we checked in on the GOP and their special brand of bigotry and ignorance, so let’s dive right in …

NORTH DAKOTA

The state GOP voted last week to raise their own meal reimbursements to $45 a day. This happened less than two weeks after that same state GOP blocked a bill to provide free school lunches to low-income students.

Tell me again how the GOP is pro-family or pro-children.

 TENNESSEE

GOP lawmakers have expelled two Democrat Representatives, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, from the House for taking part in a peaceful demonstration for gun reform that was staged in the aftermath of a Nashville school shooting that left six people dead. A third Democrat, Gloria Johnson, was barely saved from expulsion.

Of note, the two Democrats expelled were two Black men, while the white woman was saved.

FLORIDA

Ron DeSantis signed HB 543 into law this week that will allow Floridians to carry a concealed firearm without the need for a permit. People can now carry concealed firearms without going through the background screening and training that is currently required to have a concealed carry license.

More guns. Less control.

IDAHO

The state legislature has passed the nation’s first law that makes it illegal for minors to travel out-of-state to get an abortion without parental consent.

Idaho already has a near-total abortion ban in place but neighboring Washington and Oregon allow minors to get an abortion without their parent’s consent, so Idaho will restrict its residents from interstate travel for abortion access.

Why not just lock up all pregnant women until they give birth?

FLORIDA

A survey finds that among Florida’s incoming college freshmen, dissatisfaction with Governor Ron DeSantis’s education policies runs deep … deep enough in some cases to make them look for college opportunities in another state.

Intelligent.com surveyed over 1,000 Florida students, including 783 still in high school and 364 current undergrads and found that 91% of prospective college students disagree with the governor’s policies and that 1 in 8 graduating high school students won’t attend college in Florida due to education policy in the state.

Florida will become a ghost town save for the elderly and the fascists.

MISSOURI

The Missouri House has put forth new budget bills that would eliminate state funding for libraries across the state. The House Budget Committee has proposed to cut the entire $4.5 million budget slated for Missouri libraries last week after the American Civil Liberties Union [ACLU] filed a lawsuit to overturn a new Missouri law that bans “explicit sexual” images from all school materials, including library books. The law, passed last year, does not apply to written descriptions of sex or sexual acts; only photos, drawings, videos and other visual depictions are prohibited but librarians and other school officials face up to a year in jail or a $2,000 fine for violating the policy.

It might be easier just to ban all books.

MONTANA

Republicans in the state Legislature are trying to change the rules for next year’s Senate primary to make it easier to defeat Democrat Senator Jon Tester and win back the Senate majority.

A bill moving through the statehouse would change the structure of the election from the party primary system currently in place to a jungle primary in which the top two vote-getters advance to the general election regardless of party. The move would essentially box out Libertarian candidates who would likely vote Democrat ensuring a GOP victory.

If they can’t win fairly, they change the rules and cheat.

MISSOURI

State Attorney General Andrew Bailey has issued an emergency regulation regarding gender transition interventions on minors and launched a website to report allegations of malpractice at gender clinics in the state:

“It’s about protecting children for me. We’ve got to inject some sanity into this conversation. Gender is an objective reality defined by biology, in the same way that gravity is an objective reality. It is unhealthy to deny objective reality.”

He really only cares about cis gender children, to be fair. Trans kids are less than.

FLORIDA

As happens in fascist states, the rules are changed to enable the fascist to do as they please.

This week the Florida Senate scheduled a change via committee vote of the “Resign to Run” law.

This is certainly meant to allow Ron DeFascist to keep his job as governor should he fail in his attempt to take the White House in 2024.

ON THE UPSIDE …

SCOTUS

This week the U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene in an ongoing case involving West Virginia’s law banning transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports teams at school. Conservative Justices Samuel Alito and the hopefully soon-to-be-impeached and removed from the bench Clarence Thomas dissented.

The court’s action came on its “shadow docket” so-called because decisions are made without full briefing or argument and decided with little or no explanation.

Some 19 states have enacted laws like West Virginia’s anti-transgender law but no appeals court has yet ruled on the question.

WISCONSIN

Last week voters gave control of the state’s highest court to liberals for the first time in 15 years after Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz defeated former Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly in a race that served as a referendum on the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The tide is changing in Wisconsin; let’s hope that trend keeps moving forward.

NEW JERSEY

Democrat Governor Phil Murphy signed Executive Order No. 326 establishing New Jersey as a safe haven for gender-affirming health care by directing all state departments and agencies to protect all persons, including health care professionals and patients, against potential repercussions resulting from providing, receiving, assisting in providing or receiving, seeking, or traveling to New Jersey to obtain gender-affirming health care services.

“Across the nation, we are witnessing attacks led by certain states that seek to undermine the equality, dignity, and safety of the LGBTQIA+ community, especially transgender and non-binary youth. As leaders, our greatest responsibility is ensuring that every person we represent, regardless of their gender identity or gender expression, is entitled to respect, fairness, and freedom. We will continue to uphold these principles in New Jersey and support every person’s right to live freely and authentically by making our state a safe haven for those seeking or providing gender-affirming health care.”

Finally at least one safe haven for our trans brothers and sisters.

Pay attention … vote … speak up … vote … because if we don’t all stand together one day all of this country will be like Florida and Tennessee and Missouri and Idaho, and the GOP and the traitors come for us all.

Kansas Judge Calls Children The Aggressors In Sex For Hire Case

Leavenworth County District Judge Michael Gibbens  recently heard the case of Raymond Soden, a 67-year-old man who paid for sex with young girls he’d met online.

At the end of the trial Gibbens sentenced Soden to five years and 10 months in prison, eight years less than what is called for in Kansas sentencing guidelines. Gibbens did so because he believes the girls, one age thirteen and the other fourteen, were partly to blame for what happened and Gibbens questioned how much they were harmed, pointing out that they went to Soden’s house voluntarily and didn’t appear in court when he was sentenced; vile, yes, but he went even further:

“I do find that the victims in this case, in particular, were more an aggressor than a participant in the criminal conduct. They were certainly selling things monetarily that it’s against the law for even an adult to sell.”

Yes, children cannot consent to sex, which is why having sex with a minor is often considered rape, but these two children were the aggressors. And he clearly felt that Soden was the victim …

While Soden had two prior criminal convictions—one for battery and one for sexual battery—prosecutors argued for a sentence of 13-plus years in prison, but Gibbens blamed the girls because they had voluntarily gone to Soden’s house and had taken money for sexual favors … because the girls had allegedly tried to have someone rob Soden … and because the older sister of the girls had been the one who arranged for them to meet Soden. Soden also knew the girl’s mother and knew her older daughter has “pimped’ out her younger sisters.

Gibbens took all that into consideration in the sentencing and cited other factors, like Soden’s age, poor physical health and low intellectual functioning, but not the fact that he paid to have sex with children.

Children. Can't. Consent.

Miami Herald

Common Sense: It’s Real, and It’s Spectacular

Last June, the US Supreme Court ruled that Arkansas had to issue the birth certificates equally to opposite-sex and same-sex parents, overturning their previous, discriminatory policy.

And Arkansas did nothing.

So, after months of waiting for the state to comply with the Supreme Court ruling, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox has stopped Arkansas from issuing any birth certificates to anyone.

And a few hours later, to no one’s amazement, Governor Asa Hutchinson instructed the Department of Health to stop discriminating against same-sex couples.

The issue involved the case of Pavan v. Smith, where three married, same-sex couples with children, sued the state to get both of their names listed on their children’s birth certificates. See, in Arkansas, a woman’s husband is always put on her child’s birth certificate, no matter his genetic relationship with the baby; so, if Becky Lou is married to Jim Bob but has Gomer’s baby, Jim Bob’s name goes on the birth certificate.

Same-sex spouses were denied this, even though they were legally married.

And when Judge Fox heard their case and ruled that the state couldn’t discriminate against them, and when the supreme court of Arkansas overturned his ruling, he had just the one choice: common sense.

He issued an order to the Department of Health stopping all birth certificates from being issued until Arkansas complied with the US Supreme Court ruling.

And suddenly everyone gets a birth certificate.

Bravo, Judge Fox, bravo.

LGBTQ Nation

The Resistance Has A New Hero ... And It's Surprising

Well, someone in North Carolina has some ethics ...

Judge J. Douglas McCullough, in response to that power-grab by Republicans in the North Carolina legislature, has resigned his position in order to thwart GOP efforts to strip power from the recently elected Democratic governor.

Oh, and by the way, Judge J. Douglas McCullough is a Republican; and following McCullough’s sudden resignation, Judge John Arrowood, a Democrat, was sworn in. 

This all came about because, once Democrat Roy Cooper was elected Governor last fall, the GOP-controlled Legislature has gone to great lengths to strip his office of power.

But, with just three sentences on a piece of paper, Judge McCullough has proven that not all Republicans are willing to goosestep along with the party.

You see, North Carolina has a mandatory retirement age for judges and so, to prevent Governor Cooper from appointing replacements for Court of Appeals judges nearing forced retirement, the Republicans passed a bill to shrink the size of the court from 15 to 12 judges—thereby denying Cooper the ability to appoint three upcoming replacements.

That legislation was vetoed by Cooper last week, but a veto override is expected later. And so that’s when McCullough went into action; before the legislature could vote to override Cooper’s veto, Judge McCullough resigned  ... 36 days prior to his scheduled forced retirement ... and this allowed Cooper to appoint a Democrat to the bench.

“I did not want my legacy to be the elimination of a seat and the impairment of a court that I have served on.”— Judge J. Douglas McCullough

In even better news, in addition to being a Democrat, newly sworn-in Judge John Arrowood is the first openly gay member of the North Carolina Court of Appeals.

And you just know that GOP heads are exploding in North Carolina.

And you just know that we have a new member, and hero, of the Resistance, in Judge J. Douglas McCullough.

Thank you sir.

Raw Story

Judge Who Refuses To Perform Same-Sex Weddings Suspended For Being A Pervert

I’m gonna head out there on this limb right now, and say that conservatives and Republicans and religious wingnuts are some of the kinkiest sons of bitches out there.

Case in point: Tallapoosa County Probate Judge Leon Archer. Archer’s been married for over forty years; Archer is one of those Alabama judges who quit performing marriages last year rather than allow same-sex couples to wed in his office.

Leon Archer is also accused of becoming so enamored of a woman he met while performing her marriage to another man that he began sending her sexually explicit messages and nude photographs of himself—that’s him up top … who wants to see his nekked bits?

It all began when this 34-year-old woman showed up at Archer’s office to marry her 68-year-old Daddy, er, boyfriend. While Archer did perform the ceremony he made mention of the huge age difference between the parties and, when the wedding was annulled soon afterwards, Archer began sending his dirty pictures and hot-to-trot messages to the woman on Facebook.

In fact, Archer sent more than 60 pages of messages, like “I want to hear you moan” and “what happened to us hooking up.” The messages only stopped after an Alabama newspaper, The Alexander City Outlook, found out about them and reported the story.

Archer had admitted his actions at the time and apologized, though he wants y’all to know that he and the woman never had any physical contact; they just exchanged dirty messages and nudie pics on the Facebook.

Archer regrets his actions—cuz he got caught, you know—and has and cooperated fully with a probe that resulted in charges being filed against him. He reached a settlement with investigators in which he agreed to a six-month suspension without pay.

Well, that’ll give him plenty of time to update his Facebook status, won’t it?

I so love these conservatives and republicans and religious wingnuts who take the stand against same-sex marriage and the sanctity of one-man-one-woman marriage while they’re sending home-made porn pictures, and pornographic messages over the internet to random women they want to make moan.

Seriously. The hypocrisy reeks.

LGBTQ Nation

Judge Gregory McMillan Rules Parental Rights Apply Only To ‘Husbands’

Remember a year ago May when same-sex couples could only get married in some states, and then a month later the Supreme Court ruled we have the right to marry anywhere in this country?

Yeah, me, too. Well, since then we have seen all sorts of efforts to circumvent the law, or to just make it harder for The Gays to marry, and divorce, and parent, and nowhere is that more evident in Tennessee.

Last week, a Tennessee judge decided that the protections guaranteed same-sex couples by the Obergefell decision do not apply in his courtroom and so he refused to recognize the parental rights of a mother in a same-sex divorce case because she is not the biological parent.

Knox County Fourth Circuit Judge Gregory McMillan ignored the Supremes and ruled that because one of two mothers “has no biological relationship with this child” she therefore “has no contractual relationship with this child.”

It all stems from the 2014 marriage of Erica and Sabrina Witt, and the fact that early in 2015, Sabrina gave birth to their daughter through artificial insemination. Since, at the time of the child’s birth, Tennessee did not recognize same-sex marriages as legal, Erica Witt's name was not placed on the baby's birth certificate, and so when Sabrina filed for divorce she sought to deny Erica her parental rights.

Sabrina’s attorney argued that because a 1977 Tennessee law guaranteeing parental rights in artificial insemination cases specifies a “married woman’s husband,” the law therefore does not apply to Erica, a wife.

Judge McMillan, right, who made headlines 2014 for permitting a Knoxville baby to be baptized against her mother’s will — even though the mother had full custody of the child — sided with Sabrina Witt:

“I believe as a trial court I am not to plow new ground, but to apply precedent and the law.”

But not the law that states that these two women were legally married and both were parents to the child; semantics, I guess, dictated that Erica lose all rights to her child because she is a “wife” to Sabrina, and not a “husband.”

McMillan did put the divorce on hold to allow Erica Witt time to appeal; how kind of him, you know.

And don’t get me started on Sabrina Witt, who used the new law to her advantage by marrying her same-sex partner two years ago, but now wants an old antiquated law, and the word “husband”, to be used to deny her former spouse, her former wife, any rights to their child.

It’s really simply unjust; if Erica Witt, left, were a man, she would have just as much right to a daughter conceived via artificial insemination as her spouse. And even if McMillan eventually awards Erica visitation rights, his refusal to recognize her as a parent means she will have no say in issues including the child's education and medical needs. 

She will not be that child’s parent.

Again, as I said last week, not all gay people are nice and perfect and sweet and kind. We, well, the Sabrina Witts among us, can be just as vile as anyone else. Especially in Tennessee which is still working to be the most anti-LGBT state in the union.

Think Progress

Good News Friday: US District Judge Kills Mississippi's Hate Bill

So, last Spring, Mississippi legislators and its governor voted for, and signed into law, one of those Religious Freedom Bills, AKA It’s Okay To Hate The Gays Because God Hates Fags … It Says So In The Bible bills.

The bill would allow private business owners, such as caterers, bridal shops, bakeries, dress shops and other state officials, such as public school counselors, to refuse marriage-related services to LGBT Mississippians.

But wait! Seconds before the law became law, U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves literally killed it in a ruling that compared the bill directly to the state’s segregationist past, and saying the legislature was trying to write discrimination into law:

"Religious freedom was one of the building blocks of this great nation, and after the nation was torn apart, the guarantee of equal protection under law was used to stitch it back together. But HB 1523 does not honor that tradition of religious freedom, nor does it respect the equal dignity of all of Mississippi’s citizens."

Naturally, opponents of the law are rejoicing this weekend, while supporters cried out that the bill had nothing to do with discrimination, but was passed to protect their religious freedoms; freedoms which have never been threatened, mind you.

In Mississippi, and everywhere in this country, you can believe whatever you choose — I, for one, believe the universe is run by my cat Tuxedo — but you cannot, cannot, use your faith to deny goods and services to people.

But HB 1523 singled out three "sincerely held" religious beliefs as worthy of protection:

that marriage is between one man and one woman;

that people should not have sex outside such marriages;

that a person’s gender is set at birth.

In addition, the law protects from litigation anyone who speaks out against gay marriage or transgender individuals because of these beliefs.  So, yeah, that whole “it’s not at all about discrimination” line is just a lie; it’s about using religion to tell people what to do.

Religion is not a weapon.

Supporters are hoping that Reeve’s decision is appealed to the fifth circuit, but Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood has not said whether he’ll take that on.

But let’s end with a cheer for Judge Reeves, for this ruling was the second time this week he ruled against HB 1523. In a separate decision last Monday, he struck down the part of the law that allowed clerks to recuse themselves from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, and now this latest ruling invalidates every single bit of the Hate Bill by arguing that it violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment which prohibit government from favoring one religion over another and one group of citizens over another.

It’s that simple. Maybe now Mississippi will get it?

Mississippi Today

Ethan Couch, After Killing Four People And Not Being Punished, Has Run Off With His Mommy, Tonya Couch

Back on June 15, 2013, a sixteen-year-old Ethan Couch and some of his friends stole beer from a local Wal-Mart; they drank it all and then, with Couch behind the wheel, began driving around.

That same night Breanna Mitchell was driving home and her car broke down. Brian Jennings, a youth pastor, was driving by and stopped to help, as Breanna was calling a friend, Shelby Boyles, and her mother, Hollie, to come get her.

A drunken Ethan Couch plowed into the four of them, killing them, all; several others suffered severe injuries, including two passengers thrown from the bed of Couch's truck. Two of Ethan Couch's friends were critically injured; one was paralyzed for life. And three hours ... three hours ... after the crash a Breathalyzer test showed that Ethan Couch’s blood alcohol level was 0.24, nearly three times the legal limit.

Ethan Couch went on trial for the killing of four people with his car — though not for injuring and paralyzing his friends — and the judge in the case, Judge Jean Boyd [left], whom I must believe was paid off in some way, listened to the defense argument that Ethan Couch suffered from “affluenza.”

Yes, he was too rich, too spoiled, too unsupervised, to know that drinking a case of beer and then driving a car was wrong, and so Judge Boyd sentenced him to ten years … probation.

He killed four people, and injured three others, and he got probation; oh, and he never once, before the trial, during the trial, or after the trial, apologized to the families of the people he killed. He simply went back home.

Now two years later, and after a video turns up on social media showing Ethan Couch at a party playing beer pong — part of the child’s sentence was that he not drink at all — Ethan Couch has vanished, violating his parole.

And rumor has it that his mother, Tonya Couch, the woman who couldn't be bothered to parent her own son so that he grew up knowing that drinking and driving was wrong, or that if you kill four people you might wanna express some remorse, helped Ethan Couch flee. And, if found, and I so hope to the universe he and that mother are found, now, finally, Ethan Couch may actually have to go to jail for ten years; not for killing four innocent people, but for running away, mind you.

A warrant has been issued for Couch, and his idiot mother, with now both the FBI and U.S. Marshals joining local authorities to hunt Ethan and his mommy down. A $5,000 reward was offered for information leading to the arrest of Couch.

But Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson is worried that Mommy and Son have left the country, since they have the means to do so, and a little bit of a head start. But Ethan Couch, even while on probation, loved his social media, and loved posting his picture online, so there is the hope that this little mother—boy will be caught and punished; and this time punished hard.

So, if anyone who reads this, anywhere in the world, happens to come across Ethan Couch, that little bastard, that murdering little prick, and Tonya Couch, that miserable excuse for a mother ... and that's the ugly duo up there at the top ... do the right thing: call the authorities and make Ethan pay for killing people, and make his mother pay for being a horrible excuse for a parent.

I Should Be Laughing

NPR
CNN

Today In Stoopid: Tennessee Judge Can't Figure Out What Divorce Means

There’s a TV program on, I think, or maybe it’s gone now, called ‘Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?’ I never watched it, though I’m sure a lot of folks failed that test, but, still, it leads to me to this story and a new show that I’m proposing for television called, ‘Are You Smarter Than Tennessee Judge Jeffrey Atherton’

See, up there in Tennessee, Atherton is saying that the recent US Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage has muddled his ability to determine what constitutes divorce.

Yup, he did; and, in fact, last week Atherton denied the divorce petition of Thomas and Pamela Bumgardner while citing the Supreme Court's June ruling as one of the reasons he was denying the divorce.

"The conclusion reached by this Court is that Tennesseans have been deemed by the U.S. Supreme Court to be incompetent to define and address such keystone/central institutions such as marriage, and, thereby, at minimum, contested divorces."

Oh wait, I get it. Since Tennessee can’t stay bigoted and keep marriage between one man and woman, then Judge Atherton is all confused about what divorce now means.

Regina Lambert, one of the lawyers who represented the Tennessee plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case, called Atherton's reasoning irrelevant.

"Overall, Tennessee has had a fantastic response to this Supreme Court decision. He is just making a statement. I just think change is hard for people."

Sure, for stupid people like Judge Atherton.

Times Free Press

Can I Get An Amen: Diane Humetewa Confirmed As The First-Ever Native American Female Federal Judge

After we invaded this country nearly three hundred years ago, we began systematically driving Native Americans off their lands so that we could claim them as ours. We created laws designed to steal their property; we used blankets riddled with disease to kill them; we forced them off their lands and onto reservations sometimes thousands of miles from the homes they knew.

We have treated Native Americans like they don’t belong here and yet this week, for the first time in history, and finally, I say, the United States Senate has confirmed the first ever Native American woman, Diane Humetewa, as a federal judge.

And she was confirmed by a vote of 96-0 to serve on the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. Humetewa, a former U.S. attorney in Arizona, is a member of the Hopi tribe, and is now the first active member of a Native American tribe to serve on the federal bench and only the third Native American in history to do so.

Humetewa’s confirmation was heralded by the National Congress of American Indians:

"NCAI greatly appreciates the efforts of the President and Senate in achieving this historic confirmation," the organization said in a statement. "There are many qualified, talented people like Diane Humetewa in Indian Country who are able and willing to serve. We eagerly anticipate many more nominations of Native people to the federal bench and other offices."

It doesn’t make up for what’s been done to Native people by the United States, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction because finally they have a voice in our courts and a place in our courts.

Huffington Post

Think Racism Is Over?

We keep talking about race in this country, well, racism, and there are some, mostly on the right, who think we don't have a problem, either here, or around the world.

Think.Again.

Kurtis Cook, a volunteer fireman for the Mabank, Texas is no longer welcome there after he posted to Facebook that Charleston Shooter — and, again, his name will not appear on this blog — “needs to be praised for the good deed he has done.”

A person who found the post, then  responded, printing Cook’s phone number — not very cool, actually — and asked folks to contact the fire department to have Cook removed from service.

Kurtis Cook, who says he wasn’t talking about the Charleston murderer, and that his quote was taken out of context, has deleted his Facebook post, and his profile. The Mabank Fire Department removed Cook from duty and issued this statement:

Here’s the deal: Kurtis Cook has no place in society where he would celebrate someone who murdered nine innocent people. Plain and simple. And in case you think racism is America’s problem, think again …

Samara Muir is a three-year-old Melbourne, Australia Aboriginal girl and, as most girls, and, to be fair, some boys, are apt to do, she wants to be a queen … Queen Elsa, from Frozen to be exact.

And so Samara’s mother Ruth took her daughter to a local mall for a Disney-themed event and Samara chose to dress up like Elsa, and that’s when racism happened.

A woman at the event, with her own child, took one look at Samara and said this to a three-year-old:

“I don’t know why you’re dressed up for because Queen Elsa isn’t black.”

When Ruth Muir asked what the woman meant, one of the woman’s daughters said, quite plainly, to Samara:

“You’re black and black is ugly.”

Cue second generation racism, because it has to be taught.

James Gosnell is the Charleston County Magistrate who presided over the arraignment of the Charleston Shooter and decided it best to start the proceeding by asking for sympathy for a killer.

Yes. He did. But this is nothing new for Gosnell, who appears to be as much of a racist as the shooter, though, thankfully, only speaks about it, and doesn’t murder people. In 2003, while presiding over a case involving a black defendant, Gosnell said this is open court:

“There are four kinds of people in this world—black people, white people, red necks, and n****rs.”

Yes, he’s a racist, and he asks for sympathy for a young man who walks into a church, sat down with parishioners, then told them they’re stealing his country, raping our women, and started shooting them to death to start a race war, and the judge wants us to pity him.

He’s a racist. And a judge. And he should be neither.

Kurtis Cook

Kurtis Cook Photo
Frozen Racist
Judge James Gosnell
Judge James Gosnell Photo

South Carolina Marriage Equality: Where We Stand

So, we had kind of a big day here in South Carolina yesterday after Judge Richard Gergel, a US District Court judge, struck down the state’s same-sex marriage ban saying it violates the U.S. Constitution. Gergel did, however, issue a stay on his order until noon on November 20th, allowing for an appeal, and until that time no marriage licenses can be issued.

So, the dust is settling, but while we all celebrated the news, the story is far from over.

As expected, before the ink was dry on Gergel’s ruling, South Carolina’s Attorney General Alan Wilson said he will appeal the ruling to the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court. And that’s good, because the Fourth Circuit Court has already ruled that marriage bans are unconstitutional, and that ruling applies to Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina — who chose not to fight the ruling — and to Maryland, where marriage equality is already legal; only rabid dog Alan Wilson, is still fighting.

"Today's ruling comes as no surprise and does not change the constitutional obligation of this Office to defend South Carolina law, including, but not necessarily limited to, appeal to the Fourth Circuit." — Alan Wilson

This case was brought by SC Equality and Lambda Legal after Colleen Condon and her partner, Nichols Bleckley, applied for a marriage license in Charleston; a local probate court judge agreed to receive the couple's application and filings from other gay couples, and another judge, this one in Columbia, also began issuing licenses for same-sex couples.

But Wilson disagreed, and filed a motion that same day asking the South Carolina Supreme Court to stop the licenses from being issued, which it did the next day. That court said a separate decision being heard by the US District Court in South Carolina must be heard first before the state's ban could be tossed out.

And that case involves Katie Bradacs and her wife, Tracie Goodwin-Bradacs — and is the case for which The Will of the People Fund was created — who were married in 2012 in Washington DC and are suing to have their marriage recognized in this state. U.S. District Judge Michelle Childs is still considering that case and a ruling is expected soon.

But Gergel's ruling states that South Carolina’s law infringes on the US Constitution's due process and equal protection clause, and his order stops Wilson and any other law enforcement body in the state from enforcing the current ban.

"This court has carefully reviewed the language of South Carolina's constitutional and statutory ban on same sex marriage and now finds that there is no meaningful distinction between the existing South Carolina provisions and those of Virginia declared unconstitutional. The Court finds that [the Virginia decision] controls the disposition of the issues before this court and establishes, without question, the right of Plantiffs to marry as same-sex partners. The arguments of Defendent Wilson simply attempt to relitigate matters already addressed and resolved in [the Virginia decision.]”  — Richard Gergel

And that’s where Wilson is looking more and more like a fool. He seeks to appeal Gergel’s ruling to the Fourth Circuit Court which has already ruled, by virtue of its decision in Bostic v Virginia, that South Carolina’s marriage ban — and, really, all marriage bans are unconstitutional; Wilson maintains that South Carolina's law is unique:

"Our state's laws on marriage are not identical to those in other states. Therefore, based on the time-honored tradition of federalism, this Office believes South Carolina's unique laws should have their day in court at the highest appropriate level."

That’s not actually true; the ban in our state is exactly like bans in other states — notably North Carolina — where the people voted to amend the state Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, and where the ruling by the Fourth Circuit Court has already struck those laws down. Wilson stands in direct contrast to attorneys general in both North Carolina and West Virginia, who refused to defend their own states' bans following the Fourth Circuit ruling.

Alan Wilson is just a dog with a bone; and a hard-on for keeping gay couples as second class citizens in South Carolina. But, as we’ve seen in rulings by both the Fourth Circuit Court and the US Supreme Court — which just ruled that the stay on same-sex marriages is Kansas is over — Wilson will end up being swatted on the nose by the US Constitution.

Bad dog ... or, as Tuxedo says:

Judge Strikes Down SC Same-Sex Marriage Ban

Yep, Alan Wilson Is Still Defending The Gay Marriage Ban
SC Attorney General To Appeal Same-Sex Marriage Ruling