Posted by Dale Carpenter: The Ninth Circuit and DOMA: http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_02_01-2009_02_07.shtml#1233894216
The indispensable Art Leonard [1]has some thoughts on the potential significance of the internal grievance opinions that Eugene discussed earlier today. All of this matters -- beyond employees of the Ninth Circuit who entered same-sex marriages between June and November 2008 -- mostly because the Ninth Circuit seems the most likely federal appeals court to decide a direct challenge to DOMA in the next few years. Judge Reinhadt's opinion isn't a shocker, but Judge Kozinski's is intriguing without committing him to anything. If the Ninth Circuit ruled against DOMA it would be difficult to see how it could do so without finding a right to same-sex marriage. And that would put the Supreme Court, which I think would like to avoid the issue for the foreseeable future, in a very difficult position. But that's still a few "ifs" down the road. References 1. http://newyorklawschool.typepad.com/leonardlink/2009/02/two-9th-circuit-judges-grapple-with-doma.html _______________________________________________ Volokh mailing list [email protected] http://lists.powerblogs.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
