This is what Anthony Kennedy was talking about

From USA Today Today:

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert announced Wednesday that the state will not recognize the 1,000-plus same-sex marriages performed in the state since Dec. 20, when a U.S. district judge ruled that the state’s ban on gay marriage violated gay and lesbian couples’ constitutional rights. ‘The original laws governing marriage in Utah return to effect pending final resolution by the courts,’ the governor’s office said in a memo issued to his cabinet.

Gov. Herbert, Justice Kennedy

I’m sure Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, the possible swing vote on the case-to-come concerning the constitutionality of homogamous marriage, is above an emotional reaction to this kind of inhumanity. But it does seem to fall under the area of his concern in last summer’s Defense of Marriage Act decision. This is from my post that day:

When it overturned the federal Defense of Marriage Act, the Supreme Court didn’t say gay and lesbian couples have a right to marry. But the decision established that taking away the benefits of such marriages–if they are granted by states–does unjustified harm to those couples. Under DOMA, wrote Kennedy, “same-sex married couples have their lives burdened, by reason of government decree, in visible and public ways,” which he went on to list in detail–from healthcare and bankruptcy protection to the right to be buried in veterans’ cemeteries.

One of the most important aspects of the decision is what it says about the children of same-sex couples. The defenders of DOMA tried to argue that same-sex marriage is bad for children. But the majority accepted Justice Kennedy’s argument (which he raised during oral arguments) that denying marriage hurts the children of these couples. DOMA, wrote Kennedy, “humiliates tens of thousands of children now being raised by same-sex couples.”

As I wrote the other day, the government of Utah and its marriage prohibition-promotion allies argue that their denial will lead to more children raised in “opposite-sex” marriage. If it doesn’t, and soon, they may be looking at a net loss of marriages as a result of their pro-marriage policy.