News
Louisiana agrees Supreme Court should review marriage ban
State says lawsuit unique because district court upheld ban on gay nuptials
Louisiana Attorney General James “Buddy” Caldwell wants the Supreme Court to review Louisiana’s ban on same-sex marriage. (Photo courtesy of the Office of the Attorney General of Louisiana)
The attorney general for Louisiana signaled Tuesday he agrees the Supreme Court should review litigation challenging his state’s ban on same-sex marriage, but to rule in favor of the constitutionality of such laws throughout the country.
In a 22-page brief, Louisiana Attorney General James “Buddy” Caldwell and other state lawyers urge justices to take up the case, Robicheaux v. George, before the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issues judgment on the litigation.
The filing from the attorney general responds to a request from the LGBT legal group Lambda Legal, which is co-counsel in the case for plaintiff same-sex couples, calling on the Supreme Court to review the litigation even before judgment is rendered by the Fifth Circuit.
But while that petition calls on the Supreme Court to reverse a decision from U.S District Judge Martin Feldman, one of two federal district judges who determined bans on same-sex marriage are constitutional against a sea of others who struck down such laws, Caldwell maintains Feldman’s ruling could serve as a basis for justices to uphold bans on same-sex marriage.
“The Court’s resolution of the conflict may well hinge on the degree to which Windsor affirmed the authority of States to decide whether to adopt same-sex marriage,” Caldwell writes. “Robicheaux powerfully suggests that the contrary federal rulings get Windsor’s teaching exactly backwards.”
The Louisiana petition is one from among five others from other states — Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky and Louisiana — seeking Supreme Court of review of state bans on same-sex marriage.
Adam Romero, federal legal director for the University of California, Los Angeles, said the Supreme Court may well accept the Louisiana case, but noted each of the lawsuits now pending before the court call for review of court decisions upholding bans on same-sex marriage. The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld marriage bans in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.
“While the fact that the district court upheld Louisiana’s ban may give the Justices more reason to grant cert – if they are inclined to reverse such a decision – all of the pending petitions are from decisions upholding state marriage bans, so Louisiana is like Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee in this regard,” Romero said.
The Fifth Circuit is already scheduled to consider the Louisiana litigation during oral arguments on Jan. 9, the same day as arguments for a lawsuit seeking marriage equality in Texas. Plaintiff same-sex couples in the Mississippi case, for which the Fifth Circuit also has jurisdiction, have requested the court hear that lawsuit on the same day.
Iran
Grenell: ‘Real hope’ for gay rights in Iran as result of nationwide protests
Former ambassador to Germany claimed he has sneaked ‘gays and lesbians out of’ country
Richard Grenell, the presidential envoy for special missions of the United States, said on X on Tuesday that he has helped “sneak gays and lesbians out of Iran” and is seeing a change in attitudes in the country.
The post, which now has more than 25,000 likes since its uploading, claims that attitudes toward gays and lesbians are shifting amid massive economic protests across the country.
“For the first time EVER, someone has said ‘I want to wait just a bit,” the former U.S. ambassador to Germany wrote. “There is real hope coming from the inside. I don’t think you can stop this now.”
Grenell has been a longtime supporter of the president.
“Richard Grenell is a fabulous person, A STAR,” Trump posted on Truth Social days before his official appointment to the ambassador role. “He will be someplace, high up! DJT”
Iran, which is experiencing demonstrations across all 31 provinces of the country — including in Tehran, the capital — started as a result of a financial crisis causing the collapse of its national currency. Time magazine credits this uprising after the U.N. re-imposed sanctions in September over the country’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.
As basic necessities like bread, rice, meat, and medical supplies become increasingly unaffordable to the majority of the more than 90 million people living there, citizens took to the streets to push back against Iran’s theocratic regime.
Grenell, who was made president and executive director of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts last year by Trump, believes that people in the majority Shiite Muslim country are also beginning to protest human rights abuses.
Iran is among only a handful of countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain punishable by death, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Virginia
Mark Levine loses race to succeed Adam Ebbin in ‘firehouse’ Democratic primary
State Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker won with 70.6 percent of vote
Gay former Virginia House of Delegates member Mark Levine (D-Alexandria) lost his race to become the Democratic nominee to replace gay state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) in a Jan. 13 “firehouse” Democratic primary.
Levine finished in second place in the hastily called primary, receiving 807 votes or 17.4 percent. The winner in the four-candidate race, state Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, who was endorsed by both Ebbin and Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger received 3,281 votes or 70.6 percent.
Ebbin, whose 39th Senate District includes Alexandria and parts of Arlington and Fairfax Counties, announced on Jan. 7 that he was resigning effective Feb. 18, to take a job in the Spanberger administration as senior advisor at the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority.
Results of the Jan. 13 primary, which was called by Democratic Party leaders in Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax, show that candidates Charles Sumpter, a World Wildlife Fund director, finished in third place with 321 voters or 6.9 percent; and Amy Jackson, the former Alexandria vice mayor, finished in fourth place with 238 votes or 5.1 percent.
Bennett-Parker, who LGBTQ community advocates consider a committed LGBTQ ally, will now compete as the Democratic nominee in a Feb. 10 special election in which registered voters in the 39th District of all political parties and independents will select Ebbin’s replacement in the state senate.
The Alexandria publication ALX Now reports that local realtor Julie Robben Linebery has been selected by the Alexandria Republican City Committee to be the GOP candidate to compete in the Jan. 10 special election. According to ALX Now, Lineberry was the only application to run in a now cancelled special party caucus type event initially called to select the GOP nominees.
It couldn’t immediately be determined if an independent or other party candidate planned to run in the special election.
Bennett-Parker is considered the strong favorite to win the Feb. 10 special election in the heavily Democratic 39th District, where Democrat Ebbin has served as senator since 2012.
Congress
Van Hollen speaks at ‘ICE Out for Good’ protest in D.C.
ICE agent killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7
U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) is among those who spoke at an “ICE Out for Good” protest that took place outside U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s headquarters in D.C. on Tuesday.
The protest took place six days after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis.
Good left behind her wife and three children.
(Video by Michael K. Lavers)
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