NEW YORK (AP) — Saying the gay population has “suffered a history of discrimination,” a divided federal appeals court in Manhattan ruled Thursday that a federal law defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman was unconstitutional, adding fuel to an issue expected to reach the U.S. Supreme Court soon.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals seemed interested in adding its voice to several other rulings already at the high court’s doorstep by issuing its 2-to-1 decision only three weeks after hearing arguments on a lower court judge’s findings that the 1996 law was unconstitutional.
Voter suppression alive and well in Virginia-Updates!
Thursday–Colin Small of Pennsykvania was arrested for his involvement with trashed voter registration forms. Small is part of RPV.
From 29nbc.com:
Just hours before the Monday deadline for voter registration, a Harrisonburg store manager made a discovery that will keep eight citizens from being silenced. Their completed registration forms were discarded like trash. Investigators don’t yet know if it’s criminal activity or just bad business.
A typical Monday afternoon at Tuesday Morning, a store in Harrisonburg, took a strange turn, when the manager Rob Johnson spotted someone putting a bag of trash in his recycling bin. Johnson went to retrieve the misplaced refuse.
“That’s when I realized, this bag is really light and looked inside,” Johnson said. “There was the manila folder with the eight voter registration applications, and I was like, we’ve got something here.”
Va. Health Commissioner resigns over new abortion clinic regulations
RICHMOND — Virginia’s health commissioner abruptly stepped down Thursday over proposed new regulations that would require abortion facilities to meet strict, hospital-style building standards that many clinics say would put them out of business.
In her resignation letter, Karen Remley, a pediatrician first appointed by then-governor Timothy M. Kaine in 2008, said: “Unfortunately, how specific sections of the Virginia Code pertaining to the development and enforcement of these regulations have been and continue to be interpreted has created an environment in which my ability to fulfill my duties is compromised and in good faith I can no longer serve in my role.”
I doubt that the anti-choice right will be crying the blues over her resignation. That frees up another spot for an extremist position. The extremists will say and do anything to advance their agenda.
Dr. Karen Remley is to be commended for her personal integrity as well as her dedication to safe women’s health practices in Virginia. She knows that the TRAP laws turning abortion clinics into mini hospitals are simply a ruse to make abortion more difficult, less accessible and more expensive. She knows that Ken Cuccinelli acted unethically and perhaps illegally when he failed to certifiy the recommendation of the State Health Board.
We should all be worried when someone’s zealotry replaces the Rule of Law.
