one of the ways in which you claim it s meaningful is a new argument i haven t seen anywhere else before, you claim that the argument in the successful overturning of doma, the windsor case, was actually influenced by the failed case in the prop 8 fight. i talked to a lot of people involved in both of these cases involved in the drafting of the windsor briefs, who really took issue with that characterization. they said, actually the reasoning in the two cases was very different, but the olson case laid out a very different logic on olson s side. in fact, the reasoning in the windsor case came from the windsor briefs. how do you respond to that? robby caplan is a wonderful lawyer. i talk about her in the book, her and edie. they were in the case, asking for a limited you know, it was a limited decision. it was a decision to say, you don t have to recognize you don t have to overturn bans
domestic partner registry in the sate state and they said we disagree with this law even though the law is on the books. it can cut both ways, can t it, chris? yeah, it certainly can. but i think that that s part of our 50-state process. and the overwhelming majority of attorneys general who have been faced with the challenge over especially since the supreme court s ruling in the windsor case have decided that this law, the supreme court justice kennedy and his opinion, sort of put the writing on the wall on this. and i m not going to be the last attorney general standing who s defending the law. in the case of nevada, even the republican governor, ryan san do value decided that sexual orientation should be subjected to more scrutiny by courts, that under that high standard, even
the windsor case came down at the end of june. since that decision there have been 15 court decisions in courts throughout the country in places like as you mentioned, kentucky, virginia, utah, oklahoma, all relying on windsor. i don t think that s surprising at all. windsor is about the core dignity of gay people and how they have the same type of dignity and should get the same respect as everyone else. once the supreme court has said that as i predicted back in the summer, it s all over about the shouting much it was like the battle of normandy and we ve rerecaptured paris. it lays it out over and over again so it s hard to find wiggle room in that. we talk about frl cases, you gave the tally of 15, i believe 13 decisions have referenced windsor at the subfederal level, district courts. what do you think needs to happen at the state level versus
we re seeing other states do, including more conservative states that you might not expect this to happen there. what is your expectation here? do you think this will go all the way to the supreme court? i don t know whether this particular case will be the one that the supreme court decides to take or whether it will be one of the other ones from oklahoma or utah or another state. but certainly it s one that the supreme court is going to need to rule on definitively and we re seeing the landscape change quickly. during the summer last year, a round of cases were filed following that and in a number of states and this is one of them. and it s one that ultimately it s going to have to be decided by the court. to that point, i want to bring in jeff toobin. i know that this is something that you ve been following, jeff. it really is remarkable. the law usually doesn t move very quickly. but since june, when the windsor case was decided, which struck
executive. certainly states that passed constitutional amendments like georgia, which do not recognize same-sex marriages. i think we might also see something from within the justice department. national association of assistant u.s. attorneys has recently pushed back against eric holder proposals to change sentencing laws, do away with mandatory sentence, at least not push it as much. we may see some internal dispute over this particular proposal. why now? why do you think the particular action is taken right here. legally it s significant because last year united states supreme court in the windsor case finally held it is unconstitutional to not recognize same-sex marriages for purposes of federal benefits. the department of justice and other parts of the administration, now they have a green light to go ahead and say, look, we can t wait on congress necessarily to do everything but we can do what s within our power to change things we have control over. okay. page pate, appr