Marriage News Watch, June 29, 20159 (Update)

Last Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution protects marriage for everyone -- including same-sex couples. It is a decision we have been waiting decades for. And now, all our work is, well, actually, not quite done yet. Let's take a look at what the court just decided, and what comes next.

Here's a story on Texas AG Ken Paxton, who is basically blowing smoke:

County clerks can refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples based on religious objections to gay marriage, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Sunday.

Paxton noted that clerks who refuse to issue licenses can expect to be sued, but added that “numerous lawyers stand ready to assist clerks defending their religious beliefs,” in many cases without charge.

The formal opinion did not specify what constitutes a sincerely held religious belief, noting that “the strength of any such claim depends on the particular facts of each case.”

Here's Paxton's full opinion.

On the basis of a quick skim through, it seems that Paxton is avoiding the question of infringement of the Establish Clause of the First Amendment. Maybe he should take a look at the school prayer and teaching of evolution cases: refusal of a county clerk to issue a license, or of a justice of the peace to perform a ceremony, as agents of the government, because of their "religious beliefs" would seem to violate the Establishment Clause.

Yeah, they'll be sued.

Update: A very good report from CBS News:

And a post from Jeremy Hooper that hits it on the head:

Earlier this year, I vowed to stop paying attention to the fringe activists who have no political connectivity and whose words no longer have any power to effect us on any level. But now, when it comes to the marriage fight specifically, I find myself extending that blind eye and closed ear to even those who are connected enough to run for President of the United States. Sure, they might have a platform and be worth paying attention to in general. However, on this cause, their words are hollow. Their defiance is meaningless. Their vow to keep talking about this is opportunistic for the purposes of fundraising and crude support. There is literally nothing they can say or do that is ever going to stop marriage equality. While some are fighting it locally right now, that is short-lived. By the end of the summer, every single American city will be in basic compliance with the Supreme Court's ruling, or they will suffer the blowback. Because we won. They lost. It's over.

I feel pretty much the same way: there's a lot of empty posturing among the anti-gay bigots, and that's all it is: repeating today's scare words over and over again, and only demonstrating their utter contempt for our basic values. I'm over it.