In response to a last-minute request from lawyers for the state of Idaho, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy on Wednesday stopped Tuesday’s federal appeals court marriage ruling from from going into effect immediately.
The temporary order appears to have put same-sex couples’ marriages on hold in both states impacted by Tuesday’s decision from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals — Idaho and Nevada — despite the request only having coming from Idaho officials.
Under a Tuesday evening order from the 9th Circuit, the mandate in the cases challenging both Idaho and Nevada’s bans on same-sex couples’ marriages was issued. The mandate is the final step the appeals court needed to take in order to put its ruling that the bans are unconstitutional into effect.
Following the issuance of the mandate, Nevada officials announced they would not be appealing further and at least some local officials began preparing to allow same-sex couples to begin marrying on Wednesday. Idaho officials gave no such indication, with the state’s attorney general saying, “It’s still too early to know fully what the decision and orders mean for Idaho and how the state will proceed.”
On Wednesday morning, however, lawyers for Idaho went to the Supreme Court, asking Kennedy to issue a temporary stay of the 9th Circuit’s mandate, noting, “Unless stayed, the district court’s injunction and the Ninth Circuit’s mandate will compel Idaho officials to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples beginning at 8:00 a.m. MDT this morning.”
The Assembly on Monday passed a bill adding transgender people to the list of groups protected from discrimination in housing or rental agreements.The Governor has until Wednesday or Thursday to sign or veto the bill. He needs to do the right thing and sign them into law.
Lawmakers also passed a measure prohibiting discrimination against transgender people in public places such as restaurants. The bill makes an exception so bars can host gender-based promotions such as Ladies Night.
All Democrats and three Republican Assemblymen voted in favor of the two bills. They now head to Gov. Brian Sandoval.
A third bill barring employment discrimination against transgender people passed both houses and was delivered to the governor last week.
Sandoval signed Assembly Bill 211 in a ceremony attended by transgender activists and the bill's primary sponsors, Assemblyman Paul Aizley, D-Las Vegas, and Sen. David Parks, D-Las Vegas.
Under the bill, which will go into effect Oct. 1, employers cannot discriminate against people based on their gender "identity or expression," which could be opposite of the gender they had at birth. However, employers could require appropriate workplace clothing and grooming standards.
It becomes unlawful "to fail to hire or to fire or otherwise discriminate" against transgender people.
Only employers with 15 or more employees would be subject to the law. Estimates are there are 25,000 transgender men and women in Nevada.
Gender identity and expression would be protected classes in state employment protections should AB 211 pass. The bill's fate now lies with Brian Sandoval, Nevada's 47-year-old Republican governor. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Sandoval aides have remained mum on what the governor will do with the bill. The state's senate has also passed legislation that would protect transgender people from discrimination in housing and public accommodation — the state assembly has not yet taken action on those bills.The Governor has to see that this is the right thing to do. I hope that other LGBT organizations in the state are putting the pressure on him to sign it into law. Our Trans family needs the support and protection.
“The state legislature is blazing the trail to full equality in Nevada,” said Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese in a press release. “We urge them and Gov. Sandoval to continue to fight for what’s right and pass these important protections in employment, housing and public accommodations.”
The man behind a TV ad urging Latinos not to vote in the hotly contested Nevada Senate race says he doesn’t know what he’ll do now that Univision, the Spanish-language network, said it would not run the spot. “Right now we’re reanalyzing the whole strategy,” said Robert de Posoda, president of Latinos for Reform.
The ad was widely seen as an effort to hurt the campaign of incumbent Sen. Harry Reid, a Democrat, who is working hard to turn out Latino voters. Mr. de Posoda, who has long worked with the Republican Party, said he didn’t like either candidate but acknowledged that a Latino boycott would hurt Mr. Reid’s chances.
Democrats from President Barack Obama on down condemned his effort. “I think it is terrible,’” Mr. Obama said Tuesday during a roundtable with reporters from Spanish-language outlets. “It is a cynical political ploy to try to drive Latino votes to benefit a Republican candidate in Nevada who would never vote for immigration reform.”
Mr. de Posoda argues that politicians take Latino votes for granted and have failed to deliver on promises including enacting comprehensive immigration legislation. To teach them a lesson, his ads argue, Latinos should stay home on Election Day. After complaints from Nevada Democrats and some Republicans, Univision said it would not run the spots, called “Don’t Vote.”
“Univision will not be running any spots from Latinos for Reform related to voting,” a Univision spokesperson said. “Univision prides itself on promoting civic engagement and our extensive national campaigns encourage Hispanics to vote.”
They argued against our charges wearing black on religious grounds. I cannot quote scripture as they did to justify their point but the gist of their argument was that black as a color was thoroughly evil, invoking the supernatural and especially the devil my take from dictionary definitions and not from scripture.
So to Sharron, Black is the color of EVIL.
