United Liberty

Well, this is better news that I was expecting:

SAN FRANCISCO - A federal judge challenged the backers of California’s voter-enacted ban on same-sex marriage Wednesday to explain how allowing gay couples to wed threatens conventional unions, a demand that prompted their lawyer to acknowledge he did not know.

The unusual exchange between U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker and Charles Cooper, a lawyer for the group that sponsored Proposition 8, came during a hearing on a lawsuit challenging the measure as discriminatory under the U.S. Constitution.

Cooper had asked Walker to throw out the suit or make it more difficult for those civil rights claims to prevail.

The judge not only refused but signaled that when the case goes to trial in January, he expects Cooper and his legal team to present evidence showing that male-female marriages would be undermined if same-sex marriages were legal.

The question is relevant to the assertion that Proposition 8 is constitutionally valid because it furthers the states goal of fostering “naturally procreative relationships,” Walker explained.

“What is the harm to the procreation purpose you outlined of allowing same-sex couples to get married?” Walker asked.

“My answer is, I don’t know. I don’t know,” Cooper answered.

It’s limited because of the impact of Proposition 8, but it’s a good move nonetheless:

(CNN) — California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed legislation that requires the state to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states while such marriages were legal in California.

Same-sex marriages performed elsewhere between June 16, 2008, and November 5, 2008, are to be legally recognized, as are in-state marriages performed during that time.

The end date represents when a ballot initiative, Proposition 8, added a ban on same-sex marriage to the state constitution.

Proposition 8 bars the state from recognizing any marriage performed outside the state outside those dates. The state Supreme Court ruled after the proposition passed that marriages performed before the ban would remain on the books.

But Senate Bill 54 splits a legal hair and requires the state to recognize such marriages as “unions,” providing “the same legal protections that would otherwise be available to couples that enter into civil unions or domestic partnerships out-of-state,” the governor said.

Good move.

Current TV focusses on gay marriage in Wisconsin.

From CNN:

HARTFORD, Connecticut (CNN) — The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Friday that gay and lesbian couples have the right to get married.

The ruling makes Connecticut the third state, after Massachusetts and California, to decide its constitution mandates treating citizens equally when applying for marriage licenses, regardless of their sexual orientation.

Former Arkansas Governor and GOP Presidential Candidate, Mike Huckabee recently raised the ire of libertarians by calling libertarianism “not an American message,” stating libertarianism was a “soulless type of economic conservatism” and a threat to Republicanism.

LP spokesman Andrew Davis responded with-