The ever-reliable SCOTUSblog reports:

A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court on Friday afternoon lifted a year-old order blocking same-sex marriages in California, apparently clearing the way for county clerks across the state to start issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. The one-sentence order immediately nullified a stay order issued last June by the Circuit Court in the “Proposition 8″ case — Hollingsworth v. Perry.

Almost immediately state officials issued statements that same-sex marriage ‘”is now legal in California and that marriage licenses must be issued to same-sex couples immediately.”

There is no going back. Californian becomes the 13th state to legalize same-sex marriage and since this is the most populous state, it add a huge demographic weight to the movement for equality.

Tom Gjelten is an honored member of the courtier journalist class who seems to see his role as to be a press conduit for the US government. I was curious to see how he would report on the Snowden case and he did not disappoint, fully living up to my expectations of him and dutifully playing his role of government propaganda distributor by smearing Snowden. [Read more…]

Via commenter slc1, I learned of news reports that say that a now-retired four-star Marine general James E. “Hoss” Cartwright has been targeted as the source for leaking to New York Times reporter David Sanger highly classified information about the Stuxnet virus that the US and Israel used to try and impede Iran’s nuclear centrifuges.

Juan Cole gives a list of ten ways in which coverage of the Cartwright case will differ from that of the Snowden case. (#4: David Gregory will not ask that David Sanger be prosecuted for espionage because he aided and abetted Cartwright’s leaking.)

Many of you would be aware of how Texas state senator Wendy Davis helped defeat an effort to pass extremely restrictive abortion legislation by conducting a ‘talking filibuster’ for over 10 hours that ran out the clock so that a vote could not be taken by midnight of the last day of the legislative session. [Read more…]

While yesterday’s Supreme Court decisions undoubtedly advanced the movement towards full equality for same-sex couples, there are still many practical matters that need to be addressed. NPR had a good segment where they looked at how the court rulings will affect a whole list of things such as immigration, taxation, social security, armed forces, etc., especially in those states that still do not recognize same-sex marriages. This is because some federal regulations are tied to state laws, and that will cause complications that need to be unentangled. [Read more…]

After warning earlier today that there will be every effort to discredit Edward Snowden and everyone associated with him, from those publishing his materials to those aiding him in avoiding the clutches of US authorities, I was not surprised that it turns out that there are already news stories to be released today about the private life of Glenn Greenwald. [Read more…]

As an advocate of the rule of law, I have naturally supported efforts to increase government transparency. If you allow governments to act in the dark and claim secret knowledge and powers and an unfettered right to take actions based on that secret information, you have pretty much abandoned the rule of law. I have long been frustrated with how subservient the US mainstream media has been to governments, not aggressively probing and investigating but instead being satisfied with authorized leaks by high government officials who give out this information either to promote the government’s agenda or advance their own careers or both. [Read more…]