The justices’ ruling was unanimous.

Here is a beautiful excerpt from the decision:

Society benefits, for example, from providing samesex couples a stable framework within which to raise their children and the power to make health care and end-of-life decisions for loved ones, just as it does when that framework is provided for opposite-sex couples.

Amen.

Contrary to the homophobe propaganda, it’s not about special privileges for same-sex couples, it’s about equal privileges for all citizens (not just the straight ones). In other words, in Iowa, same-sex couples are no longer second-class citizens. In America there should be no second-class citizens. Everyone should share the same set of civil rights.

And, contrary to the homophobe propaganda, marriage is first and foremost a civil contract, above and beyond any religious recognition of such a union. Our founding fathers wrote the establishment clause into the first amendment for good reason.

And, in Iowa, reason has prevailed.

>> Read the full decision.

>> Learn more about Varnum v. Brien.

Related posts:

1. Rights Groups Defend Voting Rights Act Before Supreme Court NAACP Legal Defense Fund and partners take voting rights case...
2. Defense of Marriage Act Challenge Filed – What Does it Mean for Binational Couples? Immigration Equality congratulates Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD)...
3. Obama to sign UN gay rights declaration The AP reports that the Obama Administration will endorse a...

A press release on Senator Feingold’s website describes the move as follows:

Feingold’s Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act of 2009 would put an immediate halt to federal executions and forbid the use of the death penalty as a sentence for violations of federal law. The use of the death penalty has been questioned by a range of prominent voices across the country, recently repealed in New Mexico and New Jersey, and abolished by 123 countries around the world. Feingold’s bill would stop executions on the federal level, which are part of a death penalty system that has proven to be ineffective, wrought with racial disparities, and alarmingly costly. 

“I oppose the death penalty because it is inconsistent with basic American principles of justice, liberty and equality,” Feingold said. “Governor Bill Richardson and the New Mexico legislature’s action to abolish the death penalty in that state adds to the growing momentum behind ending the death penalty in this country. It is truly unfortunate that we are in a shrinking minority of countries that continue to allow state-sponsored executions.”

Feingold is not alone in his opposition to the death penalty. A range of prominent voices have questioned the system in recent years, including former FBI Director William Sessions, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, law enforcement officials and many others across the political spectrum. In 2007, only China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan executed more people than the United States.

In 2007, Feingold chaired a Senate Judiciary Committee, Constitution Subcommittee hearing on oversight of the federal death penalty that highlighted the lack of transparency at the Department of Justice in the decision-making process about the death penalty and continuing problems of racial disparities in the federal system. Also in 2007, the American Bar Association called for a nationwide moratorium on capital punishment based on its detailed study of state death penalty systems, which found racial disparities, convictions based on bad evidence, grossly inadequate indigent defense systems, and a host of other problems with the implementation of capital punishment in this country.

Those are some of the same arguments I’ve been using for years in my opposition to the death penalty.

But, however reasonable these arguments might be, I predict a lot of opposition on both sides of the aisle. Unfortunately, many lawmakers seem to believe that you can’t appear to be tough on crime unless you support the death penalty.

I would love for them to prove me wrong. But I shall not hold my breath.

Related posts:

1. VIDEO: Jeremy Irons talks about the death penalty ...
2. Just Say No – to the HIV Ban Can civil disobedience change America's policy of HIV-based restrictions for...
3. TAKE ACTION: Tell the President to ban landmines (HRW) President Obama has an opportunity to get US landmine policy...

Related posts:

1. Feingold moves for federal death penalty ban The Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act of 2009 would put...
2. VIDEO: A Measure of Our Humanity ...
3. VIDEO: Every Human Has Rights ...