POLL: 1/3 Of Americans Deny Gays' Equal Relationship Rights

Interesting poll results from PPP for DailyKos.com on legal recognition of same-sex relationships:

Public Policy Polling for Daily Kos. 1/14-16. Registered voters. MoE 3.1% (No trend lines)

Which of the following best describes your opinion on gay marriage: gay couples should be allowed to legally marry, or gay couples should be allowed to form civil unions but not legally marry, or there should be no legal recognition of a gay couple's relationship.

         Marry  Civil unions  Neither
All         34       31         33

Dem         53       24         20
Rep         11       35         52
Ind         37       34         27

Lib         78       10         12
Mod         40       38         20
Con          8       32         57

Tea Party   17       30         52
Non-TP      42       30         27

White       33       30         35
Black       32       30         30
Latino      47       32         22

18-29       52       13         33
30-45       37       31         29
46-65       31       36         31
65+         23       34         42

Notice that nearly two-thirds of respondents either support full marriage equality or civil unions for same-sex couples. A majority of Democrats support marriage equality while a functionally equal majority of Republicans support no legal recognition for a gay couple's relationship. This is limited government?

Markos says that PPP will be polling on marriage equality every four weeks in 2011, which should provide some interesting longitudinal data on attitudes of Americans on the question of how same-sex couples should be recognized under the law.

Repeat After Me. Fox News Is NOT A News Outlet

As many progressives and liberals know, Fox News is not a news outlet. It is a right-wing propaganda arm. But now we have more ammunition because the parent company of the channel, News Corporation, has decided to give one million dollars to the Republican Governors Association:

The company's media outlets play politics more openly than most, but the huge contribution to a party committee is a new step toward an open identification between Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and the GOP. The company's highest-ranking Democratic executive, Peter Chernin, recently departed.

[...]

UPDATE: News Corp. Spokesman Jack Horner emails, "News Corporation believes in the power of free markets, and the RGA’s pro-business agenda supports our priorities at this most critical time for our economy."

The giant check to the RGA dwarfs low four-figure checks from Fox's PAC to Democrats including Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer.

hat/tip to Rod 2.0

Libertarian and Liberal Think Tank Heads Support Marriage

There's an interesting editorial in today's Washington Post from John Podesta, former Clinton Whote House Chief of Staff and head of the prominent liberal think tank the Center for American Progress and Robert Levy, head of the pre-eminent Libertarian think tank the Cato Institute announcing their support for marriage equality and the American Foundation for Equal Rights lawsuit to overturn California's Proposition 8. They have joined AFER's board of directors as co-chairs.

From the Post's "marriage equality for all couples":

The plaintiffs' legal team, headed by former Bush v. Gore antagonists Theodore Olson and David Boies, has demonstrated that no good reason exists for the denial of fundamental civil rights under Proposition 8. We support that position.

Although we serve, respectively, as president of a progressive and chairman of a libertarian think tank, we are not joining the foundation's advisory board to present a "bipartisan" front. Rather, we have come together in a nonpartisan fashion because the principle of equality before the law transcends the left-right divide and cuts to the core of our nation's character. This is not about politics; it's about an indispensable right vested in all Americans.

[...]

Thanks to the genius of our Framers, who separated power among three branches of government, our courts have been able to take the lead -- standing up to enforce equal protection, as demanded by the Constitution -- even when the executive and legislative branches, and often the public as well, were unwilling to confront wrongful discrimination.

Indeed, the Supreme Court issued its Loving ruling in the face of widespread opposition. A Gallup poll taken within months of the decision found that 74 percent of the American public "disapproved" of interracial marriage. Nevertheless, the court vindicated those constitutional rights to which every American is entitled. As we look back, the Loving decision is hailed as an example of the best in American jurisprudence.

In terms of public opinion, courts addressing marriage equality have less of a hill to climb. Opposition to same-sex marriage pales next to the intense hostility the court faced before its ruling in Loving. A February Post poll showed 47 percent support for same-sex marriage (up from 37 percent support in the same poll in 2003). The Post poll also showed that the younger an individual is, the more likely he or she is to favor marriage equality, regardless of political persuasion. Among individuals ages 18 to 29, an estimated 65 percent support marriage equality.

It is precisely this generation gap which animates the heterosexual supremacists now to attempt to get as many constitutional bans on marriage now while they can because they know that the ans will fall in the future as the 18-29 cohort ages (and browns).

Obama's List For SCOTUS Has 10 Names On It

The New York Times reports that although the top 3 favorites have not changed (Solicitor General Elena Kagan, 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Diane Wood and D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Merrick Garland) President Obama is interviewing up to 10 candidates for the upcoming vacancy on the Supreme Court due to Justice John Paul Stevens already-announced retirement.

The other seven on the (not-so short) list are:

Sidney R. Thomas, 9th Circuit Court of Appeals

Ann Claire Williams, 7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm of Michigan;

former Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears of the Georgia Supreme Court;

Martha Minow, dean of Harvard Law School;

Justice Carlos R. Moreno of the California Supreme Court;

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

I'm curious as to why liberal judicial rock stars Pamela Karlan and Kathleen Sullivan are not being publicly considered. Could it be because they are openly lesbian? It is heartening to see that Justice Carlos Moreno is still under consideration, however.

Obama Nominates API LGBT Ally For 9th Circuit

Goodwin Liu

This should be the biggest judicial confirmation battle this year (barring any Supreme Court retirements, which are likely). President Barack Obama has nominated UC Berkeley Law School Professor Goodwin Liu for a vacancy on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Liu has impeccable intellectual and legal credentials. From the official White House announcement:

Goodwin Hon Liu is an Associate Dean and Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. An acclaimed scholar, teacher, and lawyer, with experience in both the private and public sectors, Liu is a nationally-recognized expert on constitutional law and education law and policy. In 2009, he received Berkeley's most prestigious teaching award.

Prior to joining the Berkeley faculty in 2003, Liu was an associate at O'Melveny & Myers in Washington, D.C. He clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the October 2000 Term, and for Judge David S. Tatel on the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit from 1998-1999. Between his clerkships, Liu served as a Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary at the U.S. Department of Education. He has also worked for the Corporation for National Service, where he helped launch the AmeriCorps program.

Liu was born in Augusta, Georgia, to parents who emigrated from Taiwan, and he grew up in Sacramento where he attended public schools. Liu earned a B.S. from Stanford University in 1991, an M.A from Oxford in 2002 (where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar), and a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1998.

The Los Angeles Times notes that if Liu is confirmed, he will be the only Asian American serving on an appellate court in the country.

MadProfessah is familiar with Godwin Liu because we both appeared at a Joint California Assembly-Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing in 2008 testifying that he thought Proposition 8 was unconstitutional and has written published editorials to that effect also.

Goodwin Liu is also known for testifying against Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court and will be an excellent progressive judge and Asian American LGBT ally on the 9th Circuit!

VIDEO: No On 1 On Rachel Maddow

Don't F*ck With Erwin Chemerinsky

Why is this man smiling? Because he just got a job offer worth

more than $205,000 to become Dean of the UCI Law School

Unabashed liberal and curent Duke Law Professor Erwin Chemerinsky has agreed to become the first Dean of the Donald Bren School of Law at the University of California at Irvine effective June 1, 2008. The law school is planning on opening it's doors in the 2009 academic year. This is a surprising result because late last week it was revealed that UCI Chancellor Michael Drake had rescinded a job offer to Chemerinsky after the publication of an Los Angeles Times op-ed by the law professor which criticized the death penalty process in California. Over the weekend, the Los Angeles Times reported that prior to dumping Chemerinsky from the post, Drake had received numerous calls from various Republicans upset about the uber-liberal receiving the job. One of those prominent Republicans protesting the appointment was Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court Ronald George who seemed particularly incensed by a point of law that appeared in the op-ed that Chemerinsky had written. The controversy flared hotter as the reasons for Drake, the only African American chancellor at a Universityof California school, appaeared to change daily. Drake had initially said that the reason he was rescinding the job offer was the difficullty of getting Chemerinsky's appointment as UCI Law School Dean through the University of California Regents. However, the Times interviewed several Regents who said that there had been no indication of any opposition on that body.

There have been calls for Chancellor Drake's resignation and it seems surprising that the two men will be able to work together amicably. I suspect by the time the law school does open it's doors in August 2009 Drake will not be Chancellor.