March 2012

by Jeremy Leaming

Does one really need another example of Washington gridlock? Likely not, especially if you read this blog from time to time, where obstruction of judicial nominations is noted often. But we’ll note one anyway, not for the process, but more as an example of just how ridiculous it’s all becoming.

As noted, possibly wryly by an editorial from The New York Times even in the “ultrapolarized atmosphere of Capitol Hill,” one would think that reauthorization of a once wildly bipartisan effort to combat violence against women could remain an exception to the out-of-control congressional obstructionism.

Last month, however, the Senate Judiciary Committee could not muster one Republican vote in favor of “a well-crafted reauthorization,” of the Violence Against Women Act, which has been reauthorized twice with bipartisan support since its inception in 1994. Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Michael Crapo (R-Idaho), not a member of the Judiciary Committee, are sponsoring the reauthorization measure.

Reporting for The Huffington Post, Amanda Terkel, notes that several of the measure’s enhanced features have irked conservatives. Not surprisingly increased protections for minorities, specifically for the LGBT community, Native American women and immigrants, have spurred conservative lawmakers’ opposition.

The reauthorization measure for instance includes more funding for tribal groups to prosecute domestic violence, and provides some limited jurisdiction to tribal courts to prosecute violence committed on tribal lands by those who are not living on the land or not members of the community.

As Terkel notes, Sen. Charles Grassley the Judiciary Committee Ranking Member has also complained about the reauthorization bill’s enhanced support of services for undocumented women.

Committee Chairman Leahy (pictured) blasted the opposition for thwarting a noble proposition to provide protections to a larger number of women who are daily victims of domestic violence.

Norma Gattsek, director of government relations for the Feminist Majority, also knocked Republican opposition of the reauthorization. She called it an “outrage” that Republican’s on the Senate Judiciary Committee refused to support it.

The Times’ Feb. 9 editorial said the Republican opposition appeared “driven largely by an antigay, anti-immigrant agenda.”

A group of academics, as noted by the Gender & Sexuality Law Blog, is urging reauthorization of the VAWA, albeit with a call that more actually needs to be done to confront ongoing and pervasive violence against a wide array of women.

Violence against varying groups of women, the professors explain, is having profound effects on the ability of those women to succeed in this country, and is adding to the nation’s festering economic inequality, the professors write.

by Jeremy Leaming

Inching closer to ending one of the nation’s inequalities, Maryland, as its governor had promised to do, enacted marriage equality legislation earlier this evening, joining seven states and the District of Columbia, though the progress comes with the reality that forces are seeking to scuttle it.

Andrew Sullivan in a “42 to Go,” blog post notes reader comment and media coverage on the latest victory for equality, while noting that in New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie’s punting of civil rights to the whims of the majority in a referendum this fall, may, at the end of the day, provide some sense of success to what otherwise were shrewd, yet likely crass political tactics, though maybe not by Sullivan. “If marriage equality wins,” he wrote, Christie “can say democracy worked, while touting his veto to the fundamentalist base ….”

Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley (pictured) in signing the Civil Marriage Protection Act of 2012 into law, which he sponsored and actively campaigned for, hit some of the right notes for battling one of the inequalities that confront the LGBT community, including those living with HIV, saying, for instance:

For a free and diverse people,… for a people of many faiths,… for a people committed to the principle of religious freedom,… the way forward is always to be found through greater respect for the equal rights of all; for the human dignity of all.

Like the newly enacted marriage equality law in Washington, enacted by Gov. Chris Gregoire (D), Maryland’s same-sex marriage law is facing opposition from religious right groups, primarily. They are working to put the newly gained equalities before the voters.

And to see a compelling response to Gov. Christie’s punt on civil liberties, see Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s thoughts here.