Same-Sex Marriage, Re-revisited

April 27, 2015

Oral argument in Obergefell v. Hodges, No. 14-556 (and related cases) happens on Tuesday, April 28, 2015. Obergefell is one of the parties in the Sixth Circuit cases which created the circuit split on same-sex marriage, providing the Supreme Court with a reason to take up the subject. (I wrote about this subject on November 17—Same Sex Marriage in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee: An Analysis of DeBoer v. Snyder—and again in DeBoer v. Snyder: An Update on January 19, 2015.)*

The Court will consider whether: (1) the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex; and (2) the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to recognize a marriage between

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Writing Matters … Mostly!

March 5, 2015

When I was a young man I recall some discussion—today it would be Internet buzz—about how writing didn’t matter anymore. We all talked to one another, and that made writing unnecessary.

Wrong! Writing matters greatly, almost always. Very recently, I got a decision in a case. My clients were right on both the facts and the law; however, the case was complicated. I filed a motion for summary judgment. It’s a request to the court, asking the court to accept the other side’s version of the facts and still rule in your side’s favor, on account of the law being on your side.

My clients prevailed. The right decision, although I was concerned until I got the ruling, as I’m

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