Kentucky Gay Marriage: Judge Says State Must Recognize Gay Marriages Performed in Other States

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Photo Credit: APA federal judge has ruled that Kentucky must recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states, pointing not only to recent decisions that have struck down bans in other states but also to older rulings on a person’s right to marry.

The state’s ban treated “gay and lesbian persons differently in a way that demeans them,” U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn wrote Wednesday. While the case dealt with out-of-state marriages, it does not require the state to perform same-sex marriages.

Heyburn cited a long line of cases going back to the legalization of mixed-race marriages and mentioned recent same-sex marriage decisions in nine other states, including Hawaii and Utah. But he mainly relied on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2013 ruling striking down a section of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, on which Kentucky’s same-sex marriage amendment had been based.

The judge also pointed to older rulings dealing with race and gender, noting that bans on interracial marriage, segregation and restrictions on women had been cited in the past as keys to a more stable society. But courts gradually did away with those restrictions.

“Each of these small steps has led to this place and this time, where the right of same-sex spouses to state-conferred benefits of marriage is virtually compelled,” wrote Heyburn, who took a seat on the federal bench in 1992 after being appointed by President George H.W. Bush with the backing of U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, both Republicans.

Read more from this story HERE.

Media Double-Standard on Display with Nagin Corruption Coverage

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Photo Credit: NBC News via BizPac ReviewYesterday, former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was found guilty of 20 out of 21 counts including bribery and conspiracy. I’m always curious how the mainstream media will cover these stories. Hat tip to Michael Dorstewitz at BizPac Review for collating the “big three” responses.

ABC 
WORLD NEWS 2/12/14 
[6:42 p.m. EST] GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And back home, down in New Orleans today, a conviction for the former mayor Ray Nagin. He became a household name in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The face and voice of a city in ruins. But today, Nagin was found guilty of corruption for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and a family vacation to Hawaii in exchange for lucrative city contracts…

Not one of these reports mentioned Nagin was a Democrat. There was a similar pattern during the episode surrounding former Illinois Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. And as a matter of fact, how many of you remember former Louisiana Congressman William “Cold Cash” Jefferson, was a Democrat?

Read more from this story HERE.

Advance for Kansas Bill Allowing Denial of Services to Gay Couples Based on Religious Beliefs

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Photo Credit: John Hanna/APGay rights advocates are outraged over a bill — passed by Kansas lawmakers earlier this week — that would allow businesses and state government employees to deny services to same-sex couples if “it would be contrary to their sincerely held religious beliefs.”

The bill — H.B. 2453 — passed the GOP-led House in a 72 to 49 vote on Wednesday and now heads to the Republican-controlled state Senate. If it succeeds there, it could then be signed into law by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.

Supporters say the legislation would protect business owners and state employees who don’t agree with gay marriage from potential discrimination lawsuits.

“Discrimination is horrible. It’s hurtful,” GOP Rep. Charles Macheers said during a debate on the house floor. “It has no place in civilized society, and that’s precisely why we’re moving this bill.

The law, Macheers said, would put Kansas “on the right side” of history.

Read more from this story HERE.

Tens of Thousands of Connecticut Gun Owners Engage in State-Wide Act of Civil Disobedience

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On Jan. 1, 2014, tens of thousands of defiant gun owners seemingly made the choice not to register their semi-automatic rifles with the state of Connecticut as required by a hastily-passed gun control law. By possessing unregistered so-called “assault rifles,” they all technically became guilty of committing Class D felonies overnight.

Police had received 47,916 applications for “assault weapons certificates” and 21,000 incomplete applications as of Dec. 31, Lt. Paul Vance told The Courant.

At roughly 50,000 applications, officials estimate that as little as 15 percent of the covered semi-automatic rifles have actually been registered with the state. “No one has anything close to definitive figures, but the most conservative estimates place the number of unregistered assault weapons well above 50,000, and perhaps as high as 350,000,” the report states. Needless to say, officials and some lawmakers are stunned.

Due to the new gun control bill passed in April, likely at least 20,000 individual people — possibly as many as 100,000 — are now in direct violation of the law for refusing to register their guns. As we noted above, that act is now a Class D Felony.

Mike Lawlor, “the state’s top official in criminal justice,” suggested maybe the firearms unit in Connecticut could “sent them a letter.” However, he said an aggressive push to prosecute gun owners in the state is not going to happen at this point.

Read more from this story HERE.

Prominent Liberal Legal Scholar: Obama’s Executive Actions are ‘A Very Dangerous Thing’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsA legal scholar said Wednesday on “The Kelly File” that President Obama’s decision to bypass Congress to enact legislation is “a very dangerous thing.”

“The framers created a system that was designed to avoid one principle thing, and that’s the concentration of power in any one branch, because that balancing between these branches in a fixed orbit is not only what gives stability to our system, but protects us against authoritarian power, protects civil liberties from abuse,” Jonathan Turley, a professor of law at George Washington University Law School, told host Megyn Kelly. “And what we’ve been seeing is the shift of gravity in that system in a very dangerous way that makes it unstable.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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FOX NEWS POLL 74 percent dislike Obama bypassing Congress

When President Barack Obama took an unplanned stop on the tour of Thomas Jefferson’s home Monday, he joked to French President Francois Hollande, “That’s the good thing as a president — I can do whatever I want.” The remark made headlines because Obama’s critics have long said he acts like he really believes that.

Among the most recent examples, they cite Obama’s State of the Union declaration that he plans to take policy actions “with or without Congress” — and this week’s White House announcement that it is delaying another key deadline in the health care law Congress passed in 2010.

Americans say not so fast, Mr. President.

According to a just-released Fox News national poll, most voters don’t think the country’s system of government was designed for the president to act unilaterally, and a majority disapproves of Obama bypassing Congress.

The new poll finds that 74 percent think the president using executive orders to get around Congress is not how things are supposed to work in our country. That includes 54 percent of Democrats.

Read more from this story HERE.

Holder: State Laws That Bar Felons From Voting Are ‘Too Unjust to Tolerate’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: APThree days after announcing that the U.S. Justice Department will recognize same-sex marriages in all legal matters, even in states that forbid it, Attorney General Eric Holder took a swipe at states that don’t allow felons to vote.

“In many states, felony disenfranchisement laws are still on the books. And the current scope of these policies is not only too significant to ignore — it is also too unjust to tolerate,” Holder told a criminal justice forum at Georgetown University Law Center.

Holder urged lawmakers “to stand together in overturning an unfortunate and outdated status quo.” And he called on the American people “to join us in bringing about the end of misguided policies that unjustly restrict what’s been called the ‘most basic right’ of American citizenship.”

These laws deserve to be not only reconsidered, but repealed,” he said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama’s Surgeon General Nominee Dr. Vivek Murthy is a Radical Gun Grabber

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Photo Credit: Charles DharapakPresident Obama is using every executive power in his arsenal to infringe on Second Amendment rights.

His latest maneuver is to nominate a rabidly anti-gun doctor to be the next U.S. surgeon general. Dr. Vivek Murthy is facing Senate approval in upcoming weeks.

Dr. Murthy is the 36-year-old president and co-founder of Doctors for America, a group that advocates for Obamacare and gun control laws.

The group calls gun violence “a public health crisis.” It pushes for Congress to ban “assault weapons” and “high-capacity” magazines and calls for spending tax dollars for more gun-control research.

The organization also lobbies for doctors to be allowed to ask patients, including minors, whether they have legal guns in the home. If the patient admits to having guns, Dr. Murthy wants doctors to “counsel them appropriately about safety measures.”

Read more from this story HERE.

U.S. Senator Drops Bombshell During VW Plant Union Vote

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Photo Credit: REUTERS/Michael DalderU.S. Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee said on Wednesday he has been “assured” that if workers at the Volkswagen AG plant in his hometown of Chattanooga reject United Auto Worker representation, the company will reward the plant with a new product to build.

Corker’s bombshell, which runs counter to public statements by Volkswagen, was dropped on the first of a three-day secret ballot election of blue-collar workers at the Chattanooga plant whether to allow the UAW to represent them.

Corker has long been an opponent of the union which he says hurts economic and job growth in Tennessee, a charge that UAW officials say is untrue.

“I’ve had conversations today and based on those am assured that should the workers vote against the UAW, Volkswagen will announce in the coming weeks that it will manufacture its new mid-size SUV here in Chattanooga,” said Corker, without saying with whom he had the conversations.

In the past few weeks, Volkswagen officials have made several statements that the vote will have no bearing on whether the SUV will be made at the Chattanooga plant or at a plant in Puebla, Mexico.

Read more from this story HERE.

Dear Soldier On An Alaskan Airlines Flight From Washington, D.C. to Seattle

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Photo Credit: REUTERSI’m sorry.

Early on Feb. 9, in the cold, black and blue hours of a winter Sunday, I said nothing.

I first saw you in your camouflage fatigues patiently waiting in the airport security line.

I spotted you later shuffling around the gate with a wide smile on your face waiting to board the six-hour, non-stop flight from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport to Seattle-Tacoma International.

I watched a hurried woman stop and thank you for your service. You were so kind, so gracious, so humble.

Still, I said nothing.

Read more from this story HERE.

Boy Scouts Shrink 6 Percent After 1 Year of Allowing Gay Members

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Photo Credit: Luis M. AlvarezThe Boy Scouts of America experienced a modest dip in membership in 2013, but not the mass exodus that some social conservatives predicted while it was considering changing its membership policy on gays.

Boy Scouts membership fell by 6 percent last year, leaving it with nearly 2.5 million youth members and 960,000 adult members.

Reasons for the attrition, which is slightly greater than the 4 percent losses in 2012 and similar-sized declines in several previous years, are not fully understood but are likely related to the divisive vote on admitting openly gay youths to Scouts as well as a 60 percent increase in annual membership dues.

It’s “impossible to point to any single factor that influences our membership numbers,” Deron Smith, director of communications for Boy Scouts of America, said Wednesday.

But on social media sites the May vote on gay youths has been cited as a factor, and Trail Life USA, a Christian-based, outdoor, character-building group for boys and young men, says Boy Scout defectors are driving its quick growth.

Read more from this story HERE.