SCOTUS Denies Kansas Request For Stay On Marriage Equality Ruling

The Supreme Court denied a last-ditch effort by Kansas to prevent marriage equality from coming to the Sunflower State on Wednesday. As you can see from the order, only Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia would have granted the stay. There had been some question whether the Suporeme Court would continue allowing same-sex couples to get married in states after the 6th Circuit broke the string of appellate court rulings in favor of marriage equality last week, making it likely that the court will have to issue a ruling with national impact sooner rather than later.

Hat/tip to Chris Geidner

Saturday Politics: SCOTUS Allows Texas' Unabashedly Racist Voter Suppression Law To Go Into Effect

As I discussed last Saturday, the politics of who will vote is becoming increasingly salient as Election Day 2014 approaches. Today, the bad guys won a big one when the Supreme Court in a 6-3 vote (boys against girls) decided to allow Texas's new voter suppression identification law go into effect for the 2014 election while the federal courts consider the law on its merits, even though a federal judge has already declared that the 2011 law intentionally has a disparate impact on minorities.

A divided Supreme Court handed a big defeat to the Obama administration and numerous civil rights groups early Saturday morning when it ruled that Texas can enforce its 2011 voter ID law in November that some have called the strictest in the country. Three justices dissented from the ruling that rejected an emergency request that had been filed by the Justice Department and civil rights groups. 

The decision appears to mark “the first time since 1982 that the Court has allowed a law restricting voters’ rights to be enforced after a federal court had ruled it to be unconstitutional,” notes Scotus Blog’s Lyle Denniston. A federal judge had struck down the law last week, saying that some 600,000 voters—mostly black or Latino—would face difficulties at the polls due to a lack of proper identification. The law, which was approved in 2011 but only came in effect in 2013 lays out seven approved forms of identification—a list many have questioned for including concealed handgun licenses but not college IDs, notes the Associated Press. 

This marked the fourth time over the last few weeks that the Supreme Court has been forced to decide whether voter ID laws passed by Republican state legislatures can be used in November. The justices voted to allow changes in Ohio and North Carolina and stopped a new law in Wisconsin. 

An article in Slate magazine by Jamelle Bouie questions whether voter identification laws are based in partisanship or racism and comes out in favor of partisanship. Regardless, the effect and impact of the enactment of voter "identification" laws is negatively impact the voting power of racial minorities.

Queer Quote: Liberty Counsel Defames Gay People

Liberty Counsel, a known right-wing think tank that often takes legal positions in court opposing any positive legal gains for LGBT people, has started to be even more homophobic than before.

This post on their Facebook page is starting to get some attention, and is today's Queer Quote:

"We believe that those involved in homosexuality are created in the image of God and, because of that, deserve respect. However, their actions are damaging both to themselves and to society as a whole. Just like smoking or drug addiction, this behavior should not be encouraged or promoted by our government. We believe that those involved in homosexuality are complete personalities who should not be confined to a label because of a sexual act. To do so is as superficial as labeling an adultress wife or husband for life because of a sexual act. These actions are seeking the same love, validation, and acceptance that all of us seek, yet an answer will no be found in repeated unhealthy interactions or societal and governmental approval for these actions. We believe this deep hunger can and will only be satisfied in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ."

Hat/tip to Joe.My.God

GRAPHIC: Who Pays What Taxes In America?

The internet and political chattering classes are going absolutely bonkers about the revelation that Mitt Romney has nothing but contempt for 47% of the American electorate, when he was caught on video saying:

"There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what...These are people who pay no income tax.My job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."

The graphics above show what the distribution of tax payers is in the United States, and it is true that roughly 53.6% of taxpayers pay federal income tax, but it also true that another 28.3% pay federal payroll taxes.

Ezra Klein points out that current tax policy has generally been crafted by Republican presidents and Congresses of the last couple decades:

Part of the reason so many Americans don’t pay federal income taxes is that Republicans have passed a series of very large tax cuts that wiped out the income-tax liability for many Americans. That’s why, when you look at graphs of the percent of Americans who don’t pay income taxes, you see huge jumps after Ronald Reagan’s 1986 tax reform and George W. Bush’s 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. So whenever you hear that half of Americans don’t pay federal income taxes, remember: Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush helped build that. (You also see a jump after the financial crisis begins in 2008, but we can expect that to be mostly temporary.) 

Some of those tax cuts for the poor were there to make the tax cuts for the rich more politically palatable. “Do you think we wanted to include a welfare payment to people who don’t pay taxes and call it a tax cut?” A top Bush administration official once asked me. “No. But that’s what we needed to do to get it done.” 

But now that those tax cuts have passed and many fewer Americans are paying federal income taxes and the rich are paying a much higher percentage of federal income taxes, Republicans are arguing that these Americans they have helped free from income taxes have become a dependent and destabilizing “taker” class who want to hike taxes on the rich in order to purchase more social services for themselves.

As Bill Clinton says, "It takes a lot of brass to blame a guy for something you did yourself."

Why Republicans Support Mandatory Voter ID Laws

Hat/tip to Joe.My.God