American spring

[mmcirvin]

Well, it appears that Barney Frank is worried for the same reason I was. But now the avalanche is starting. It isn't Boston and San Francisco now; this is all over the place.

Comments

[urbeatle.livejournal.com]

well, Ah-nold just issued an order to the mayor of san francisco to cease and desist and also ordered the attorney general to take legal action.

now, the peculiar thing about Ah-nold's threat is that he's not actually backing up the courts on this, although he made various appeals to state law... because the Superior Court has twice now refused to issue a restraining order on the judge -- so, he can't be held in contempt of court, because the courts have stated that the gay marriage opponents have failed to prove that issuing gay marriage licenses is a public danger requiring emergency action.

now, keep in mind they haven't said "gay marriage is ok", they are going to still hold a hearing on this... plus, the city has filed a lawsuit against the state challenging state law as unconstitutional. so the judges are saying "sure, we can decide this in court, but GAWDAMN, people, this is not the end of the world. we refuse to call out the national guard."

in response, Ah-nold has stated that the judges have failed to do their job. well, no, they have failed to turn into chicken little; as far as I know, that's AH-NOLD's job.

Re:

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

While at first I favored the scrupulously legal Massachusetts approach and was a bit leery about this outbreak of civil disobedience by local officials (on the grounds that executive officials of any sort have to be super-careful about obeying laws), I'm starting to think that this is actually pretty brilliant. Sometimes the law is just stupid, and this is the only level on which the protesting disobedience thereof really could happen. It heartens me tremendously that it's happening in places other than SF, even if they are all urban centers with a significant out-and-vocal gay population.

Doubtless all or nearly all of these rashes of gay marriage licenses are going to be smacked down by the courts sooner or later, but that's just step two in the process. And no matter how it turns out, if it has the effect of making people less apathetic about local government, that's all to the good, since local government has a more direct effect on people's lives than, say, the president does.