Who knows, maybe this is Steve Beshear’s way of taking a fall:
Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear’s administration is arguing the state’s ban on same-sex marriage isn’t discriminatory because it applies to straight people, too.
“Kentucky’s marriage laws treat homosexuals and heterosexuals the same and are facially neutral. Men and women, whether heterosexual or homosexual, are free to marry persons of the opposite sex under Kentucky law, and men and women, whether heterosexual or homosexual, cannot marry persons of the same sex under Kentucky law,” the Democratic governor said in a brief filed with the Supreme Court on March 27.
I like it. It’s one of those kinds of statements that immediately strikes you as making no sense at all, but it’s mind bogglingly hard to say why. A bit like grappling with Zeno’s paradox. In fact, I suggest someone go to the Supreme Court and try to re-open the Hobby Lobby case, for would not the above logic apply with equal force, to wit:
Obamacare treats the religious and non-religious the same and is facially neutral. Corporations and other employers, whether religious or non-religious, are obliged to provide insurance coverage to their employees that includes birth control, and corporations and other employers, whether religious or non-religious, cannot provide insurance that does not include birth control.
No, it’s not the same. Mine actually makes way more sense. Anyway, hats off to Beshear’s lawyers. It takes a lot of damn gall to put something like that in a brief, so give them credit for a certain form of courage. And who knows, given that they’re making the argument to people like Scalia, Thomas and Alito, that tortured logic may become the law of the land.
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