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Not quite the decisions I was hoping for
After the dust settled, here's what we have:
DOMA
Same-sex couples who are married and continue to live in states in which their marriage is legal will get the same Federal benefits as different-sex married couples.
The way I, not a lawyer, read the decision, if a gay couple gets married in Washington State where it is legal, and either lives in or moves to Oregon, where it is not, they will not be treated by the Feds as married. Oregon has a state income tax, which probably won't treat them as married either. I know nothing about Oregon's tax laws, so I may be completely off base on that.
Prop 8
The case was dismissed because the groups which filed it did not have a legal right to do so. The Supes in both CA and DC said so. This does not mean someone else who has been harmed by the repeal, such as a man whose wife leaves him to marry a woman, can't file another case. It also does not mean a constitutional amendment can't be put in place to define marriage as 1 man 1 woman. The latter is far-fetched in today's Democrat-controlled state legislature, but that demographic is a recent occurrence, and could change. It also doesn't prevent a similar proposition from being voted in again, which will put us back at square one.
But Moonbeam Brown has done the right thing, and ordered every county records department in the state to start issuing marriage certificates to same-sex couples.
Personally, I don't think the government has any place in the marriagescam industry, and I, along with all single taxpayers, definitely am being discriminated against by married couples getting a tax break. I hear Obama has ordered a search through the US Code for all marriage-related laws so as to better enforce the change in DOMA. No reason not to just abolish them all once he has identified them.
DOMA
Same-sex couples who are married and continue to live in states in which their marriage is legal will get the same Federal benefits as different-sex married couples.
The way I, not a lawyer, read the decision, if a gay couple gets married in Washington State where it is legal, and either lives in or moves to Oregon, where it is not, they will not be treated by the Feds as married. Oregon has a state income tax, which probably won't treat them as married either. I know nothing about Oregon's tax laws, so I may be completely off base on that.
Prop 8
The case was dismissed because the groups which filed it did not have a legal right to do so. The Supes in both CA and DC said so. This does not mean someone else who has been harmed by the repeal, such as a man whose wife leaves him to marry a woman, can't file another case. It also does not mean a constitutional amendment can't be put in place to define marriage as 1 man 1 woman. The latter is far-fetched in today's Democrat-controlled state legislature, but that demographic is a recent occurrence, and could change. It also doesn't prevent a similar proposition from being voted in again, which will put us back at square one.
But Moonbeam Brown has done the right thing, and ordered every county records department in the state to start issuing marriage certificates to same-sex couples.
Personally, I don't think the government has any place in the marriage