Every post published in December 2013, most recent first.
Briefly: In The Washington Post, Robert Barnes observes that although, “[a]s smart as they are, Supreme Court justices sometimes falter when they predict the consequences of their decisions,” Justice Antonin Scalia’s predictions on same-sex marriage – made in his dissent in United States v. Windsor – are now “being borne out” in the lower courts.
UPDATE 5:14 p.m. Justice Sonia Sotomayor has asked for a response to the Utah application; it is due by noon on Friday.
UPDATE 11:21 p.m. In a case from the Tenth Circuit Court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor temporarily blocked enforcement of the mandate against the institutions in that case, while she awaits a response from the federal government, due by 10 a.m. on Friday.
Analysis State officials in Utah plan to ask the Supreme Court, as early as Monday, to stop same-sex marriages across the state, but a question that arises as lawyers prepare the papers is whether they will stop with only that request.
With Utah expected – as early as today — to ask the Court to stop same-sex marriages there, coverage of the Court continues to focus on the Utah case and how it might fare at the Supreme Court.
With the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit having declined to block a district judge’s order invalidating Utah’s ban on same-sex marriages, coverage of the case now turns to the possibility that the Supreme Court will weigh in.
Friday 4:48 p.m. This post has been updated and expanded to cover the ruling more fully. —————- Ruling that the government’s global telephone data-gathering system is needed to thwart potential terrorist attacks, and that it can only work if everyone’s calls are swept in, a federal judge in New York City ruled Friday that Congress legally set up the program and that it does not violate anyone’s constitutional rights.
As Lyle reported for this blog early yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit declined to block a federal judge’s order striking down Utah’s ban on same-sex marriages.
UPDATE Thursday 12:27 p.m.
Expanding the meaning of the Supreme Court’s decision in June in United States v. Windsor, a federal judge in Cincinnati ruled on Monday that states have a constitutional duty to accept the marriages of same-sex couples performed legally in other states.