Gay Marriage and the Supreme Court

Today marks the beginning of a huge debate in the Supreme Court over 2 laws regarding Gay Marriage that are being challenged as unconstitutional.  We're going to look into these 2 laws and see what is making all the news.

Today, 3/26/13 the Supreme Court will hear the case on the first law, the California law known as Proposition 8.

In 2009, two same-sex couples -- Kristin Perry and Sandra Stier, and Paul Katami and Jeffrey Zarrillo -- were denied marriage licenses after passage of Proposition 8 in November 2008. The two couples sued, claiming that the Constitution’s equal protection clause prohibits the State of California from defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

A California District Court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that Prop.8 violated the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It is now to be argued in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Tomorrow, 3/27/13 the Supreme Court will hear the case on the second law, the Defense of Marriage Act. This law was passed in 1996 and signed into law by President Bill Clinton (D).

The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is a federal law designed to give states the right to refuse recognition of a same-sex marriage approved by another state. It also defines marriage as a union between a man and woman for the purposes of federal law.

Step 1: Read the background
Background explanation of what is being debated, and why it matters. From www.politifact.com

Step 1.5: Discuss (but not aloud!)
When you are ready to start discussing this, let's use a new site to have a silent conversation about this:
http://todaysmeet.com/Current-Events-Talk.

You can choose to read the whole article and then start participating in the conversation. Or, you can react as you read. The point of this is to share out your thoughts, ask questions, share observations, etc.

There is a length limit, similar to Twitter so you have to be short and to the point in your comments. but, you can submit as many comments as you want. there is no limit. Let's see how this goes.

Please keep it on topic, keep respectful and thoughtful. I'm excited to try something new.


Step 2: Read one of the following additional articles

Want to know the difference between Marriage and Civil Unions?
www.glad.org/uploads/docs/publications/cu-vs-marriage.pdf 

Very cool graphic and background on what options the Supreme Court has in ruling this case.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/03/24/us/how-the-court-could-rule-on-same-sex-marriage.html?hp&_r=0

CNN article on the statistics related to Gay Marriage

Step 3: Continue to comment and react by writing your thoughts, your questions, what is confusing, what is surprising, etc on the http://todaysmeet.com/Current-Events-Talk site.