It was nice of the Supreme Court to wait until I returned to issue their ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act. Even better of them was ruling that DOMA is unconstitutional!
As I flew in late last night from Los Angeles, I’m a bit jet-lagged and out of it, but attempted to bring you the rulings as they were announced – courtesy of SCOTUSblog. And Jacob Combs of Courage Campaign and Equality on Trial joined in with some perspective too.
You can read the actual DOMA ruling here – with Justice Kennedy writing the opinion for the majority!
What a difference from yesterday, when Kennedy was the deciding vote to stick the knife in the back of the Voting Rights Act (more on that tomorrow)…
Actually, some inspiring stuff was taking place last night in Austin, Texas where the GOP-led legislature was attempting to pass a bill that would close all but 5 abortion clinics in the state, and would outlaw abortion after 20 weeks of gestation.
State senator Wendy Davis took to the floor for a real, old-fashioned filibuster, complete with Texas’ very strict rules. As is explained here in the Washington Post, there was lots of drama during the 11 hours plus between the time Sen Davis began her filibuster and when the Lt. Gov officially declared SB5 dead… but it set the stage for today’s historic SCOTUS decison.
Of course, there was lots more news yesterday, as President Obama delivered a tough speech on climate change and the need to address it in which he outlined some new executive directives that are already making GOP heads explode. He did speak about the Keystone XL pipeline:
“…Allowing the Keystone pipeline to be built requires a finding that doing so would be in our nation’s interest. And our national interest will be served only if this project does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution. The net effects of the pipeline’s impact on our climate will be absolutely critical to determining whether this project is allowed to go forward. It’s relevant.”
But it sounds weaselly enough to me to provide him cover to do it anyway… Time will tell. Desi Doyen of the Green News Report joined me to talk about it all…
And Crooks & Liars John Amato helped wrap up the show for today talking about Netroots Nation, SCOTUS and more….
