Thursday, July 02, 2015
Amarillo Is Ready To Issue Same-Sex Marriage Licenses
And that includes the clerks serving the city of Amarillo. Amarillo is in two separate counties. The northern half is in Potter County and the southern half is in Randall County. The clerks of both counties say they took Monday to download the new license forms from the state, and had worked out any glitches by late Tuesday. Both Potter County Clerk Julie Smith and Randall County Clerk Renee Calhoun say they have not yet had any licenses requested, but they stand ready to issue the licenses when asked to do so.
Amarillo is in one of the reddest areas of Texas -- an area that votes overwhelmingly Republican. So, many of us wondered how these clerks would react to the court decision. It is gratifying to see that they were not willing to waste taxpayer money by getting the counties engaged in silly lawsuits.
Public Supports Court Decisions On Obamacare & Marriage
Last Thursday, the Supreme Court upheld the giving of subsidies to buy health insurance in all 50 states, and on Friday, that court then legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 state. Since then, right-wing Republican officials have been loudly complaining and whining. To hear some of them, you would think the end of the world is upon us.
But the truth is that they are only speaking for a small minority of Americans -- the teabaggers and evangelicals within their own party's base (which is understandable since those are the people they need to keep happy to survive their party's primaries next year). It turns out that fairly substantial majorities of the public at large disagree with the Republicans. About 63% of Americans support the Supreme Court decision to keep the insurance subsidies, and 59% support the decision to legalize same-sex marriages.
Those are some fairly large percentages, and show that the position taken by right-wing Republicans might be popular with their own base, but are not going to be winning positions to take in next year's general election.
The numbers are from a new CNN / ORC Poll -- taken between June 26th and 28th of 1,017 nationwide adults (with a 3 point margin of error).
Wednesday, July 01, 2015
Texas Will Provide Benefits To Same-Sex Spouses
Texas Republicans have whined loudly ever since the Supreme Court declared last Friday that marriage was a constitutional right, and therefore could not be denied to same-sex couples. The Governor and Lt. Governor have both declared their opposition to the Supreme Court decision, and the Attorney General issued a legal opinion -- an opinion that has raised a furor in the public.
I think that furor was because many people misunderstood exactly what the opinion said. It was reported that the opinion would allow County Clerk offices to refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples on religious freedom grounds. What it actually said was that individual employees could do that -- but went on to say if an office issued opposite-sex couples licenses but refused to do that for same-sex couples, or refused to issue any licenses at all, it could be in legal trouble (and subject to sanctions or fines).
County Clerks across the state understood the opinion, and are already starting to issue licenses to same-sex couples -- and if there are a few hold-outs, they won't last long. In short, Texas will go along with the Supreme Court's ruling. The Republicans just had to engage in one of their favorite pastimes before obeying -- performing a bit of political theater to appease their base
On Monday, there was more evidence of Texas falling in line with the new law. The announcement was made that starting today (Wednesday), the Employee Retirement System (ERS) would begin providing benefits to the same-sex spouses of Texas employees. The ERS is the agency that provides benefits for most employees of the state and retirees. They are to be joined in providing those benefits by the University of Texas system and the Texas A&M University system.
The Republicans don't like it, and they have complained loudly, but Texas will comply with the law.
Trump Is Among The Leaders In Michigan
Yesterday, I showed you a poll from Kentucky that had Donald Trump in the top four of Republican presidential candidates in that state. Now we have a poll from Michigan -- and surprisingly, it shows the same thing. Trump garners 14% in that state, giving him a tie with Bush and Carson, and only one point behind leader Scott Walker. It's starting to look like Trump could actually be a real player in the GOP race. I have to admit this surprises me a bit. I thought even extremist Republicans could see Trump was a buffoon.
The poll also surveyed Michigan Democrats. Clinton has a firm lead of 57% in that state, but Sanders does seem to be getting some traction there. He came in at 25%.
The survey was done by Public Policy Polling between June 25th and 28th, and queried 465 Republicans and 413 Democrats. The margin of error for Republicans is 4.5 points, and for Democrats is 4.7 points.
Supreme Court Allows Texas Clinics To Stay Open
This would place a severe burden on Texas women wanting to exercise their right to control their own body -- forcing many to have to travel hundreds of miles to get to a clinic. That might not be bad for some women, but for the poor (especially those without their own transportation) it could be prohibitively expensive.
A request was filed with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to stay the law going into effect, but it was turned down. Plaintiffs then appealed to the Supreme Court. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a temporary stay to allow the Texas clinics to stay open. The order gives plaintiffs time to prepare and file a petition for a hearing on the law before the Supreme Court. It's not guaranteed the court will then hear that petition, but it's very unlikely they would have issued the stay unless they were going to hear the case.
Roberts, Scalia, Alito, and Thomas opposed issuing the stay, while Kennedy (picturedP joined Kagan, Ginsburg, Breyer, and Sotomayor to allow the clinics to stay open. It looks like Justice Kennedy will once again be the swing vote when the case is heard. It's anyone's guess as to which way he will vote, but he did vote for the stay and has been unwilling to vote to overturn Roe vs Wade in the past.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)