Righting the Scalias of Justice

St. Thomas More, he ain't.

From The Hill, some more on Utah's marriage equality ruling:

A federal judge in Utah struck down the state's gay marriage ban Friday in a decision that signals bans in other states could be threatened as well. 

U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Shelby struck down Utah's constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, saying it was a violation of the U.S. Constitution's due process and equal protection clauses. 

This decision was the first ruling by a federal court on a state same-sex marriage ban since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act in June in the case United States v. Windsor. 

While the Supreme Court purposefully did not rule on state gay marriage bans, the Utah decision indicates that the Windsor decision could be interpreted as requiring them to be struck down across the country. 

Shelby seized upon the dissent of Justice Antonin Scalia, a prominent conservative on the court, in which Scalia warned that the majority's logic in striking down DOMA — that DOMA was simply intended to harm gay people — would inevitably be used to strike down state bans across the country. 

Now, Shelby is doing so. "The court agrees with Justice Scalia’s interpretation of Windsor and finds that the important federalism concerns at issue here are nevertheless insufficient to save a state-law prohibition that denies the Plaintiffs their rights to due process and equal protection under the law," Shelby writes.Utah passed its amendment to the state constitution banning gay marriage with 66 percent of the vote in 2004. 

In North Carolina, the 2012 marriage equality ban passed with 61% of the vote. In 2006 the South Carolina version passed with 78%.