Gay marriage Ban Struck Down in Utah.

[RedSLC]

Between this and the program to end homelessness, who would have thought that Utah would have two awesome political developments this week?

As for hurting the Utah dems, even the ones not representing parts of SLC probably won't have too much to worry about - all of them represent part of Salt Lake County, which is one of the most "moderate" counties on the issue (when the ban was first passed in 2004, it did vote in favor, but was one of the amendment's worst counties (Passed with 54 percent of the vote, whereas in the Presidential election at the same time, Bush got 59 percent of the vote). That, and the ones outside SLC represent parts of the inner-ring suburbs, which are more "moderate" (the outer ring suburbs, on the other hand...)

[RedSLC]

Between this and the program to end homelessness, who would have thought that Utah would have two awesome political developments this week?

As for hurting the Utah dems, even the ones not representing parts of SLC probably won't have too much to worry about - all of them represent part of Salt Lake County, which is one of the most "moderate" counties on the issue (when the ban was first passed in 2004, it did vote in favor, but was one of the amendment's worst counties (Passed with 54 percent of the vote, whereas in the Presidential election at the same time, Bush got 59 percent of the vote). That, and the ones outside SLC represent parts of the inner-ring suburbs, which are more "moderate" (the outer ring suburbs, on the other hand...)

Your state also struck down the cohabitation ban. Awesome week for Utah!

Forgot about that.

Anyway, living in Utah just got way more awesome.

[RedSLC]

Ah, the first cheap Mandela quote.

I'm loving your butthurt in this thread. I can virtually hear you seething.

It is glorious to see his whining. Simply glorious.

This is the ruling that will help lose Utah Democrats UT-04. Glorious for Mia Love.

They were already going to lose it, and anyone who cares all that much is already aware that the Mathesons and any other serious Utah Dem UT-04 candidate doesn't support gay marriage.

Also, my sister can now get married to her girlfriend, so I couldn't care less about what you think.

You seem to dispute the notion that Dems were already going to lose it in the other thread about Matheson's retirement.
But yeh, this will help them lose it. Then you can go on Dailykos and whine about how Utah doesn't send any Democrats to congress.
Congratulations to your sister.

I think what he means is that without Matheson, democrats were going to lose this regardless of the ruling.

Anyway, I don't think this would have a significant impact, even if Matheson was still in. As Zioneer said, Matheson (any presumably, any other prospective UT-4 candidate) doesn't support gay marriage, and the ruling was completely out of his hands. That, and Matheson got most of his support fro the district's share of Salt Lake County, which is actually one of the most "moderate" counties on the issue (although it takes in some of the more conservative parts of the county), and is somewhat more focused on economic conservativism.  Most of the more hardcore anti-gay-marriage voters in the district are straight-ticket R voters that probably wouldn't have voted D anyway.

[RedSLC]

As of now, there are three counties in Utah that have issued same-sex marriage licenses: Salt Lake County (The biggest county in the state), Weber County (Ogden), and Washington County (St. George). Additionally, Davis County plans to begin issuing marriage licenses today.

Three counties have refused to issue licenses: Utah County (Provo/Orem), Box Elder County (Brigham City), and Millard County. Not particularly surprising, especially with Utah and Millard, which were the counties most strongly in favor of banning SSM out of all of Utah's counties (They were the only two counties to give the anti-SSM referendum over 80 percent of the vote).

[RedSLC]

The people and representatives of Utah together banned it. The federal government needs to respect the will of the citizens of Utah and California to maintain and enforce their bans of gay marriage. Article 1 Section 8 and the 10th Amendment apply in this case. Keep standing against this activist judge and enforce the ban in the name of the Constitution.  Liberty without Morality is anarchy

If it violates the constitution, then guess what - it doesn't matter how many people approve it, it cannot be enforced. period.

And how do you define "morality"?

[RedSLC]

Also, I'm going to re-post my response to you on the NM ruling, because this elaborates far more on the subject:

Article 1, Section 8 describes the powers of Congress. Since Prop 8 was overturned by the courts, this is pretty much irrelevant to the actual case.

And here is the text of the Tenth Amendment:

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Notice the bolded part. This means that if the constitution says that something is not allowed, then it is not allowed, regardless of public approval, period. It is part of the constitutional framework designed to prevent the majority from oppression of the minority, and  is there to further ensure that everyone's best interests are represented.

Now here is section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment:

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Prohibiting gay couples from having the same benefits of straight couples falls afoul of the bolded part. If something violates the constitution, judges have complete authourity to overturn it. It's part of how our country works.

[RedSLC]

Another update on the counties:

Most of the states 29 counties have agreed to start issuing same-sex marriage licenses.

The six counties that have not agreed to start issuing licenses are: Box Elder County (Brigham City), Cache County (Logan), Juab County, Piute County, San Juan County, and Utah County (Provo/Orem). Millard County, despite previously declining, appears to have reversed course.

Additionally, Garfield County has not yet stated its intentions with regards to the issue.