The Obama Administration this morning made an abrupt and seismic shift in its legal policy and position on DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act). It is a change that will have far reaching and important ramifications, and already has in the Perry v. Schwarzenegger Prop 8 case.

The breaking news out of the California Supreme Court is that they WILL entertain a full merits consideration of the question certified to them by the 9th Circuit in the Perry v. Schwarzenegger.

Liveblogging the oral arguments in the appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Perry v. Schwarzenegger.

Liveblogging the oral arguments in the appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Perry v. Schwarzenegger.

Joe Sudbay of AmericaBlog asked President Obama a simple question: is DADT unconstitutional? The answer he got was anything but simple, and Obama managed to refer to Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” in a reply that told LGBTs they were wrong to be disappointed in Obama’s strategy of “not now.”

Funny, but that’s not at all what King said. Obama’s reply makes it sound not like this is one of his “favorite pieces of literature” but something someone else read and gave him some talking points from.

Obama may want to re-read that letter — because the LGBTs sure act and sound like they’ve read it a lot more recently than Obama has.

Ballot measures tend to be much harder to accurately poll than partisan elections. Each initiative is a unique question with its own quirky set of parameters regarding which demographics and psychographics are most likely to support or oppose it. In comparison, all partisan elections between a Democrat and Republican are, at a core level, fairly similar.

Well, this is embarrassing for Team Obama: the resident right-wing bomb-thrower on The View, who campaigned alongside Sarah Palin in 2008, has said she supports something called “gay marriage” which I presume is what the rest of us call marriage equality. This puts her to the left of President Obama.

And if your religion can’t stop Satan or the Devil or El Diablo or whatever magical evil force you’ve conjured to frighten the rubes — well, neither can Mr Law. Listen up, unenlightened ones: YOUR FEARS ARE NOT ENOUGH.

Since graduating from college, Andy Pugno has worked on one issue and one issue only: denying gay and lesbian Californians their civil rights. He’s a dangerous man, and it’s great to see some sunshine on his tawdry career.

Greetings from the United States Federal Courthouse for the Northern District of California where Marcy Wheeler, Teddy Partridge and I have spent Wednesday covering closing arguments in Perry et al. v. Schwarzenegger et al. It was quite a day and, despite the solemn nature of court proceedings, a monumental and electric day. To be honest, the electricity is far more in the people, whether the plaintiffs, defendants, or the myriad of people here to witness the proceedings on what is without any question a unique and groundbreaking case.