Thursday, January 2, 2014

Q Toon: Marriage Comes to Utah


National Organization for Marriage spokesguy Brian Brown inspired this week's cartoon during his appearance on MSNBC's Up on Sunday morning. 

Host Steve Kornacki wanted to talk about how much better marriage equality has been polling recently, even in red states. Aisha Moody-Mills of the Center for American Progress was willing to oblige her host, and Business Insider Josh Barro discussed the three avenues of legal opinion, legislative action, and popular vote along which marriage equality had advanced in 2013.

Brown, representing Straight Privilege, wanted to focus his fire on Robert Shelby, the Utah District Court Judge who found Utah's prohibition of same-sex marriage disciminatory. Brown repeatedly called Shelby "an activist judge," echoing the charge of Utah Governor Gary Herbert.

As Kornacki had already pointed out, Shelby's nomination was supported in glowing terms by both of Utah's Republican Senators, six-termer Orrin Hatch and Tea Partisan Mike Lee.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in introducing Shelby to the Senate Judiciary Committee said: “Whenever we have a judicial vacancy in Utah, no matter who occupies the White House, I look for a candidate to recommend who is widely respected in the legal community and who can be widely supported in the Senate. Bob Shelby certainly meets that test.”
 During the confirmation process, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, described Shelby as "pre-eminently qualified" and predicted he would be "an outstanding judge."
Dang sneaky, those activist judges.

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