9th Circuit Perry v. Schwarzenegger hearing: analysis and discussion

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Created on Monday, 06 December 2010 15:36

Written by Joe L. Sosa, Jr

By Adam Bink
via http://prop8trialtracker.com 

Well, that was something. Some brief reactions:

(a) Cooper’s constitutional argument turned almost entirely on the word itself- marriage- and as Brian noted in our live-blog thread, that this word is simply special.

(b) Very interesting and promising that Judge Hawkins seemed to ridicule Cooper’s discussion of theRomer v. Evans case when Cooper said that case was far-reaching and different, interjecting, if you take away a bunch of rights, it’s not okay, but if it’s one right [marriage], then it’s ok? Cooper could not square the circle that, to him, Amendment 2 was a noxious and over-the-top move by the voters of Colorado, but taking away the fundamental freedom to marry from same-sex couples is fine by him, and Hawkins seemed to note that.

(c) Tyler was terrible. Couldn’t explain why the clerk herself wasn’t there, made numerous factual mistakes, unprepared to respond to challenges from the judges.

(d) Ted Olson hammered home repeatedly, and without interruption that the US Supreme Court has never said marriage is just between man and woman when ruling in the context of prisoners, contraception, divorce, other cases that marriage is (a) liberty (b) privacy (c) association (d) identity. He noted the Supreme Court said this 14 different times. That, along with Olson’s discussion points that (a) even if raising children in same-sex households were a problem, the remedy is not to deny the freedom to marry to same-sex couples, and (b) as Brian put it, you can’t wall off a right because children shouldn’t be exposed to sexuality… it just doesn’t stand up to even the lowest level of rational basis- seemed to be the most poignant in the entire day.

I will be posting further reactions from others throughout the afternoon, as well as the scene from outside the courtroom.

What are your thoughts on how it went?

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Understanding "Standing" in the Proposition 8 California Same-Sex Marriage Appeal: Part One in a Ser

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Created on Monday, 06 December 2010 15:33

Written by Joe L. Sosa, Jr

By VIKRAM DAVID AMAR and ALAN BROWNSTEIN

Over the next few months, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will take up an appeal that is being brought by the sponsors of Proposition 8 (the California initiative banning same-sex marriage) to undo U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling, made after a long trial, that the initiative violates the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. When the Ninth Circuit begins its work, the first question the appellate judges will consider is whether the folks trying to preserve Proposition 8 are appropriate parties in the case -- that is, whether anyone who favors Proposition 8 has "standing" under the Constitution and relevant laws to defend the initiative measure in federal court.

If the Ninth Circuit determines that no defendant (other than the Attorney General and Governor, who have both declined to defend the initiative in either the trial or appellate court) has standing, then the appeal will be dismissed. If that happens, the findings and opinion resulting from the trial conducted by Judge Walker will also likely be erased. This is so because if the only defendants who had constitutional standing in the trial court (the elected executive officials) chose not to defend the measure, then the trial that took place was not a product of a live "case or controversy" under the Constitution; it was, instead, a trial between appropriate plaintiffs on one side and invalid parties -- the Proposition's sponsors -- on the other side. And the results of such a contest where only one side is properly represented cannot be afforded legal respect or significance.

Under this reasoning, the Ninth Circuit would send the case back to Judge Walker to return to square one, and to process the litigation simply on the basis that the plaintiffs should win by default, because the appropriate defendants -- the Attorney General and the Governor -- have conceded the matter. Under such a scenario, unless something new develops, Proposition 8 would be invalidated, but the invalidation would come in a ruling that could never be taken up to the higher courts to set any precedent that might be applicable outside California or that might induce (or even allow) the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in.

In the space below, we begin to analyze some of the arguments supporting the idea that Proposition 8 sponsors should be recognized as having standing in federal court. In Part Two of this series, we will develop other arguments -- beyond even those yet identified by the parties -- that may call into question such standing. And in a later column, we will discuss the attempts by Imperial County (a California county whose electorate voted overwhelmingly in favor of Proposition 8) to intervene in the federal lawsuit (that is, to become a party when no one has named the county as a defendant) in order to defend the gay-marriage ban.

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LIVE COVERAGE of Prop 8 on GayHanford.com

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Created on Sunday, 05 December 2010 17:18

Written by Joe L. Sosa, Jr

Calif. gay marriage foes gamble on win in Round 2

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Created on Sunday, 05 December 2010 17:10

Written by Joe L. Sosa, Jr

Facebook users make Homer Simpson, Flintstones profile pictures for anti-child abuse campaign

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Created on Friday, 03 December 2010 22:33

Written by Joe L. Sosa, Jr

CLARKE BOWLING
DAILY NEWS WRITER

Friday, December 3rd 2010, 2:24 PM

Been on Facebook lately and wondering why your friends and family are looking more like Homer Simpson or Wilma Flintstone?

A new social media campaign known as Childhood Cartoon Faces hopes to raise awareness of violence against children by encouraging Facebook users to ditch traditional pictures in favor of the cartoon images.

"Change your Facebook profile picture to a cartoon from your childhood and invite your friends to do the same," said the Campaign to End Violence Against Children, a Facebook page.

"Until Monday [Dec. 6], there should be no human faces on Facebook but an invasion of memories," the group also writes, meaning your friends' pages should go back to normal by the start of the workweek.

It is not clear if the group has official ties. However searches revealed that the Childhood Cartoon Faces campaign is the only major event for the cause in December.

Response on Facebook has not been entirely positive. A page critical of the campaign's functionality challenges its motives, writing, "Aside from changing your profile pictures...[w]hat else can you do to support the campaign after December 6?"

After strong appeal from Pentagon, opponents of ‘Don’t ask’ repeal ponder next move

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Created on Tuesday, 30 November 2010 15:51

Written by Joe L. Sosa, Jr

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates appealed strongly to the Senate to repeal the military's ban on openly gay service members within the next month, telling reporters Tuesday that the Pentagon's most comprehensive study of troop opinion found there would be little risk to repealing "Don't ask, don't tell."

Gates mentioned by name the most passionate defender of the military's gay ban, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, who has said this study -- which takes into account the survey responses of 115,000 troops and 44,000 military spouses -- is not comprehensive enough to authorize a repeal. McCain has strongly opposed repeal of the ban, and had heretofore insisted that Congress refrain from acting on the question before consulting the results of the Pentagon study. Now that those results seem to favor supporters of repeal, McCain and other backers of "Don't ask, don't tell" face a dilemma: how to keep making their case when not merely influential military leaders, but rank-and-file soldiers appear to have no serious problem with gays openly serving in the military.

McCain's approach has been to suggest the study itself is inadequate.

"In this respect I think he's mistaken," Gates said. "This does provide a sound basis for drawing conclusions on this law...It's hard for me to imagine that you could come up with a more comprehensive approach."

McCain's spokeswoman, Brooke Buchanan, told The Lookout in an email that the senator is "currently in the process of carefully reviewing the Pentagon's report." She did not comment on whether the recommendations will sway the senator to support repeal.

For complete article click here

Vatican: Condom use less evil than spreading HIV

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Created on Sunday, 28 November 2010 22:21

Written by Joe L. Sosa, Jr

In a seismic shift on one of the most profound — and profoundly contentious — Roman Catholic teachings, the Vatican said Tuesday that condoms are the lesser of two evils when used to curb the spread of AIDS, even if their use prevents a pregnancy.

The position was an acknowledgment that the church's long-held anti-birth control stance against condoms doesn't justify putting lives at risk.

"This is a game-changer," declared the Rev. James Martin, a prominent Jesuit writer and editor.

The new stance was staked out as the Vatican explained Pope Benedict XVI's comments on condoms and HIV in a book that came out Tuesday based on his interview with a German journalist.

The Vatican still holds that condom use is immoral and that church doctrine forbidding artificial birth control remains unchanged. Still, the reassessment on condom use to help prevent disease carries profound significance, particularly in Africa where AIDS is rampant.

"By acknowledging that condoms help prevent the spread of HIV between people in sexual relationships, the pope has completely changed the Catholic discussion on condoms," said Martin, a liberal-leaning author of several books about spirituality and Catholic teaching.

The development came on a day when U.N. AIDS officials announced that the number of new HIV cases has fallen significantly — thanks to condom use — and a U.S. medical journal published a study showing that a daily pill could help prevent spread of the virus among gay men.

"This is a great day in the fight against AIDS ... a major milestone," said Mitchell Warren, head of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition.

Theologians have debated for years whether it could be morally acceptable for HIV-infected people to use condoms to avoid infecting their partners. The Vatican years ago was reportedly preparing a document on the subject, but it never came out.

The groundbreaking shift, coming as it does from the deeply conservative pontiff, would appear likely to restrain any public criticism from Catholic conservatives, who insisted Tuesday that the pope was merely reaffirming the church's moral teaching.

Conservatives have feared that a comment like this would give support to Catholics who want to challenge the church's ban on artificial contraception in an environment where they feel they are under siege from a secular, anti-Catholic culture.

George Weigel, a conservative Catholic writer, said the Vatican was by no means endorsing condom use as a method of contraception or a means of AIDS prevention.

"This is admittedly a difficult distinction to grasp," he told The Associated Press in an e-mail. What the pontiff is saying is "that someone determined to do something wrong may be showing a glimmer of moral common sense by not doing that wrong thing in the worst possible way — which is not an endorsement of anything."

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Apple-Approved 'Anti-Gay' App Disappears From App Store

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Created on Sunday, 28 November 2010 14:45

Written by Joe L. Sosa, Jr

The Huffington Post   |  Bianca Bosker First Posted: 11-28-10 11:45 AM   |   Updated: 11-28-10 05:14 PM

The Manhattan Declaration, a controversial appcondemning gay marriage, sparked outragewhen Apple approved the app for inclusion in its App Store, finding that it contained "no objectionable material."

Earlier this week, The Huffington Post wroteabout the app, which critics have called "anti-gay" for "[boiling] LGBT people down to little more than deviant cretins." Several days later, the app was no longer available in the App Store, and it seems Apple has quietly removed the app. (We've contacted the creators of the app for a comment.)

The app's disappearance from the App Store comes after thousands signed an online petitionasking Apple to remove the app. "Supporters of equal rights and the right of women to control their own bodies must stand together and say to Apple: 'Applications that support hate and division have no place in the iTunes Store,'" the petition's authors wrote.

The Manhattan Declaration invited users to add their signatures to a nearly 5,000-word long "declaration" authored by Christian clergy, among others, that "speaks in defense of the sanctity of life, traditional marriage, and religious liberty." The app described itself as a "call of Christian conscience."

In 2008, Apple donated $100,000 to oppose the ban on gay marriage.

Do you think Apple should have removed the app? Weigh in below.

via http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/28/apple-anti-gay-app_n_788872.html

Afrojack ft. Eva Simons - Take Over Control (Official Video HD)

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Created on Sunday, 28 November 2010 13:51

Written by Joe L. Sosa, Jr

American Express boosts Small Business Saturday

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Created on Saturday, 27 November 2010 14:35

Written by Joe L. Sosa, Jr

A new national campaign is urging consumers to take a break between the big-box madness of Black Friday and the bargain-hunting of Cyber Monday and spend today patronizing neighborhood merchants in a new event dubbed Small Business Saturday.

Backed by American Express OPEN, the division of the credit card giant that serves small businesses, the campaign supports the locally owned businesses that help give neighborhoods their character.

"We're really focused on the little guys that don't have the national or regional brand names hanging over their doors," said Cinda Baxter, the small business advocate in Minneapolis whose activities helped spawn today's event.

Baxter said that about 18 months ago she floated an idea in a blog posting. She called it the 3/50 Project: Find three local merchants you love and spend $50 at each per month.

She described 3/50 as a less confrontational variant of the broader buy-local movement because her approach acknowledged that everybody shops at big boxes and online - while also reminding consumers that local merchants deliver not just personal service but millions of jobs.

Baxter said AmEx, which liked the tone of the 3/50 Project, brainstormed with her about how to spotlight neighborhood retailers during the holiday season - and Small Business Saturday was born.

At y&I clothing store on Chestnut Street in San Francisco, co-owner Robyn Sribhen White said small shops like hers need the assist.

Sribhen White, who worked for the Gap and other national brands before opening her shop four years ago, said local merchants have a tough time competing for gift purchases, in part because items from small stores can be harder to exchange, especially if the gift is sent out of town.

For that reason, she said, most of her clientele are women - or their significant others - buying fashion statements like one of this season's favorites: thigh-high leather boots.

In addition to the national advertising campaign to christen what AmEx hopes to make a recurring event, the credit card giant has urged its cardholders to register in advance for a special promotion - if they shop in a local store on Saturday and charge at least $25 on their AmEx card, they'll get a $25 credit on their next statement.

When more than 100,000 people quickly registered at www.facebook.com/SmallBusinessSaturday, the company doubled to 200,000 the number of cardholders who could preregister for the savings.

Andrew Mastorakis, president of Fremont Bank, a local institution that also caters to small businesses, praised AmEx for a brilliant campaign to bolster the little guys - while also helping the credit card giant improve its reach among small retailers, many of whom only take competing credit cards.

Meanwhile, at Big Swingin' Cycles in San Francisco's Russian Hill neighborhood, proprietor Brian Bruckner said he sent an alert about today's special to the hundreds of customers who have joined his mailing list in the 10 years since he began selling bikes and service.

An American Express customer - as is Sribhen White - Bruckner has the inside track on making the most of the event.

"Black Friday is not usually a big day for us," said Bruckner, who is hoping that Small Business Saturday may convince a few more shoppers to come in and kick the tires.