Half a Supreme loaf is better than none

The Supreme Court decided to punt on marriage equality today, which is good if you support marriage equality and live in one of the several states covered by the several cases they declined to hear:

As a practical matter, however, this decision not to hear these cases is an earthquake for gay rights. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, which covers Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, refused to issue a stay halting its order favoring marriage equality. Although the Supreme Court later stepped in with its own stay order, that order provides that the Supreme Court’s stay will “terminate automatically” if the Supreme Court denies review of the case. Now that the justices have done so, there should be no further legal barriers preventing marriages from beginning in those five states — although it is possible that there may be some delay before marriages may begin due to procedural steps that need to be taken by the judiciary.

The Court also denied review in cases arising out of the Seventh Circuit, which covers Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, and in the Tenth Circuit, which covers Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming. It is likely that marriages will be able to begin quickly in those states as well — although it may be necessary for plaintiffs in some of those states to seek an order from a federal court requiring states that oppose marriage equality to comply with their obligations under the Constitution.

I’m pleased to be living in a state that treats LGBTQ folks as human beings. It seems to me that it would have been better, although it would have taken longer, for the Court to have taken one of these cases and ruled definitively that marriage equality is legal nationwide, but I guess this is in keeping with almighty federalism. Anyway, it’s hard to imagine how a legal case against marriage equality could stick anywhere at this point.

Also, because apparently it’s Opposite Day or something, the Court did something else right, refusing to hear the appeal of an Ohio science teacher who was fired for teaching creationism. You can’t teach the Abrahamic creation myth in a public school science class and then wrap yourself in the First Amendment, which is as it should be.