President Obama jokes with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka about eating birthday cake while he speaks at the labor union’s Executive Council meeting in Washington, August 4, 2010. REUTERS/Larry Downing
–Michael Lindenberger explains the ruling that struck down California gay-marriage ban yesterday.
–Dahlia Lithwick writes Judge Walker’s decision “was written for a court of one” — Justice Anthony Kennedy, the man expected to be the single swing vote on the Supreme Court — and that the long list of “findings of fact” in Walker’s decision “knits together the trial evidence, to the data, to the nerves at the very base of Justice Kennedy’s brain.” Marc Ambinder lists the key facts.
–Orin Kerr doesn’t think the factual findings will matter too much if/when the case reaches the Supreme Court; he argues the case is just too big to rely heavily on the lower court’s findings and Judge Walker may have pushed too hard.
–Dale Carpenter thinks Judge Walker took a risk by writing an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink decision:
The decision, as I read it, relies directly or indirectly upon every prominent constitutional argument for SSM. One could say this is a strength of the decision. If a higher court doesn’t like one reason, it might accept another. But it is also a weakness of the decision, from a gay-rights litigation perspective, since it invites a higher court to address them all if it decides to reverse the result. A sweeping victory becomes a sweeping defeat.
–Ted Olson, one of the lawyers who argued for the plaintiffs, responds to the decision:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjv_AMI8H0M]
—Nate Silver wonders whether gay marriage will reemerge as a campaign issue. The potential is certainly there in California.
–No wedding bells for same sex couples in California just yet; the court issued a temporary stay on the order.
–The Senate is set to confirm Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court today. Then it’s off to recess.
—David Broder (!) despairs over the state of the upper chamber.
–Obama leaves an unambiguous path back to engagement with Iran on the table. Joe sees significant progress.
–Max Boot explains how Gen. Petraeus is tweaking operating procedure in Afghanistan.
–And the secret service wouldn’t let Obama eat cake on his birthday. Consolation prize: Dinner with Oprah.
What did I miss?