Daily Kos

Open thread for night owls: Will Joe and Mika ever apologize for making Trump look good in 2016?

Friday Jun 30, 2017 · 8:01 PM PDT

2017/06/30 · 20:01

These two have blasted Donald Trump lately. But they sure didn't take him on when it could have made a difference.

Matthew Sheffield at Salon writes—Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski are angry at Donald Trump now — but they’ve never apologized for promoting him:

MSNBC’s morning news duo Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski have become some of Donald Trump’s most vociferous critics in recent months. Amid all of their criticisms of him, however, they have yet to apologize for their own role in helping his presidential campaign be viewed credibly by the press and the general public.

During Friday’s episode of “Morning Joe,” Scarborough flat-out stated that Trump had somehow, magically morphed into a different person from the guy he used to know.

“The guy that’s in the White House now is not the guy we knew two years ago,” Scarborough told his panel

“Not even close,” Brzezinski agreed.[...]

That’s their story and they’re sticking to it. Too bad it’s completely false [...]

As Trump’s presidential campaign moved from sideshow to reality, the trio’s relationship became the subject of much mockery. Trump himself acknowledged Brzezinski and Scarborough’s loyalty during the night of the New Hampshire primary, telling them, “You guys have been supporters. And I really appreciate it. And not necessarily supporters, but at least believers.”

A few days later, Trump and Scarborough were overheard in a surreptitiously recorded conversation discussing how to make him look good. That is indeed what the MSNBC co-hosts did for the better part of a year.

For crying out loud. A different guy than two years ago? Good grief. The guy hasn’t morphed since November 8 from a swell fellow into the embarrassment and reckless endangerment of a leader he daily proves himself to be. Trump himself says he is the same now as he was in third grade.

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New world order is an old world lie
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TWEET OF THE DAY

The Minneapolis City Council just approved raising the minimum wage to $15!

That's such good news, I had to sing a song to celebrate. pic.twitter.com/puxBV8lA7G
— Rep. Keith Ellison (@keithellison) June 30, 2017

BLAST FROM THE PAST

At Daily Kos on this date in 2002—Other priorities:

In what is shaping up to be an interesting administration leak, anonymous officials say that the pre-9-11 Bush Administration didn't have terrorism on its radar screen. Despite intense focus on the problem by the Clinton Administration, Bush's National Security Council discussed terrorism in only two if its first 100 meetings.

So, while the Bushies were interested in restarting the Cold War with North Korea and China, terrorism was barely an afterthought. Missile defense was important. Al Queda was ignored. Restarting nuclear testing was a priority. Securing our airports was not.

Lucky for the administration, the 4th of July weekend is coming up, giving it ample opportunities to sound the terrorism alarm bell.

On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: We checked the Trumpmeter & he’s still nuts. Just in time for WSJ’s bombshell on Russian collusion, too. Kobach’s Krazy Kommission kicks-off. Still smouldering over NC-GOV loss, Rs seek to impeach Dem Sec. of State over the menace of… DACA notaries public.

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Donald Trump goes gift shopping for Vladimir Putin

By Mark Sumner

Friday Jun 30, 2017 · 7:31 PM PDT

2017/06/30 · 19:31

Maybe some horsies? I heard he likes horsies.

What do you give an autocratic dictator who helped you land a plum job, when you are trying to keep up the slightest sliver of a pretext that you and the dictator don’t have … a relationship? Donald Trump is looking for an answer.

President Donald Trump has asked National Security Council staff to come up with "deliverables" that he can offer to Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Germany next week, The Guardian reported Thursday.

Deliverables. It sounds marginally, but only marginally, better than “thank you gifts.”

It is unclear what those "deliverables" would look like, but they could include an offer to ease sanctions — which the Trump administration has reportedly looked into at least twice since January — or to give back the Russian diplomatic compounds that President Barack Obama ordered evacuated in December.

Those would be the same compounds that Trump was looking at giving back before. The compounds that were expressly taken away from the Russians because of their interference in the election, that both Democratic and Republican senators don’t want Trump to return. The compounds that the Russians have demanded.

But what does Trump get in return? Nothing. Nothing but the sweet satisfaction of showing everyone, once again, that Trump can do what he wants and no one can stop him.

It is unclear what Trump would ask for in return for such concessions, if anything. A former official familiar with the debate inside the White House told The Guardian that the NSC had resisted "offering anything up without anything back in return."

Senate Republicans fret over whether Trump will help them or hurt them

By Hunter

Friday Jun 30, 2017 · 7:01 PM PDT

2017/06/30 · 19:01

Hmm ... what if we told him it was national Go Stay At Your Golf Course Month ...

From his own blustering but ultra-generic statements, it has been apparent that Donald Trump has absolutely no idea what the Senate's version of a "healthcare" bill actually contains. Perhaps nobody bothered to tell him; perhaps they have tried to tell him repeatedly but he simply can't retain the information. Also, he is an mean-minded idiot.

So now Republicans are debating whether to ask Trump for his assistance in selling the bill to the public or if they would prefer he keep his pie-hole shut.

[S]ome lawmakers and congressional aides privately bemoan his thin grasp of the bill’s principles, and worry that his difficulty staying on message will do more harm than good.
“You know, he’s very personable and people like talking to him and he’s very embracing of that, so there will be certain people he’d like to talk to,” said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. “But I’d let Mitch handle it,” he continued, referring to the lead role Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has played thus far.

Ah, whether to unleash the shouting liar or chain him up in the basement for a while: It is indeed a dilemma. That said, it's not clear that Senate Republicans have any say in whether Trump attempts to "help" them, and they certainly won't have any say whatsoever in how he does it. You'll recall Trump went from holding a celebration with House Republicans in the Rose Garden over the passage of their own healthcare bill, only to blast it as "mean" during the drafting of the Senate version; his habit of changing his opinion to whatever would best impress his audience from one moment to the next has made him an unreliable would-be ally.

And this, too, hasn't gone unnoticed.

One Republican congressional aide said that comment left some lawmakers worried that the president — who had no real ties to the GOP before running for the White House — could turn on them if a bill passes but the follow-up becomes politically damaging. The official insisted on anonymity in order to describe private discussions.

Republicans are trashing Medicaid's success to justify slashing it

By Laura Clawson

Friday Jun 30, 2017 · 6:31 PM PDT

2017/06/30 · 18:31

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - SEPTEMBER 21: Protestors carry signs as they demonstrate against proposed cuts to Medical and Medicare outside San Francisco city hall on September 21, 2011 in San Francisco, California. Dozens of disabled people staged a protest against proposed cuts to Medical, Medicare and Medicaid programs. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

As Republicans scramble to justify their plan to give rich people a tax break by slashing Medicaid, they’re simultaneously claiming that their cuts aren’t really cuts and that Medicaid doesn’t work, anyway, so cutting it is good. Neither of these things is true—the cuts are cuts, and Medicaid definitely works, according to multiple studies and Medicaid patients themselves. Here’s a sample of what Republicans are claiming:

At National Review, Oren Cass, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, writes, “in a randomized trial in Oregon that gave some individuals Medicaid while leaving others uninsured, recipients gained no statistically significant improvement in physical health after two years.”

Here’s the reality of that Oregon study:

… what it found, in short, was that Medicaid protected enrollees from catastrophic health costs; boosted the likelihood of people reporting they were in good, very good, or excellent health by 25 percent; cut depressive symptoms by about 30 percent; and increased both diabetes diagnoses and treatment.

But the study also disappointed Medicaid’s backers: In particular, there was no evident improvement in blood sugar, blood pressure, or cholesterol levels after two years.

How is that not an improvement? For two years of a small study, those are highly significant results—unless, of course, your priority is denying that Medicaid helps people. That’s not the only study out there, either:

One study compared three states implementing large Medicaid expansions in the early 2000s to neighboring states that didn’t expand Medicaid, finding a significant 6% decrease in mortality over 5 years of follow-up. A subsequent analysis showed the largest decreases were for deaths from “health-care–amenable” conditions such as heart disease, infections, and cancer, which are more plausibly affected by access to medical care.

Medicaid works. Expanding Medicaid works. Republicans are just looking for excuses to put the very healthy bank accounts of the very wealthy over the physical health of low-income people.

The end of Medicaid as we know it? No exaggeration. The Senate version of Trumpcare has worse long-term cuts to Medicaid than the House version, to pay for tax breaks to the wealthy. Call your Republican senator at (202) 224-3121, and give them a piece of your mind. Tell us how it went.

Saving America from smart schoolgirls: Afghan teenagers denied visa for robotics competition

By Mark Sumner

Friday Jun 30, 2017 · 6:01 PM PDT

2017/06/30 · 18:01

TO GO WITH Afghanistan-unrest-education-children,FEATURE by Ben Sheppard .In this picture taken on September 25, 2013, schoolgirls attend an outside classroon in Mirwais Mena school in Kandahar city. When attackers threw acid in Shamsia Husseini's face outside her school in Afghanistan, she defied them by returning to class -- and now she has struck another blow for female education by becoming a teacher herself. AFP PHOTO / Massoud HOSSAINI (Photo credit should read MASSOUD HOSSAINI/AFP/Getty Images) — Schoolgirls attend an outdoor classroom led by a teacher who returned to the school after having acid thrown in her face.

An all-girl team from the city of Herat in Afghanistan has been invited to the United States to participate in the prestigious FIRST Robotic Competition. Despite great difficulty in obtaining both supplies and instruction, the girls have worked hard to design, construct, and program a robot for the competition. With the help of the first female tech CEO in the nation, they’re polished their skills and prepared. And they’ve literally risked their lives to be a part of the contest.

To interview for their visas, the girls risked a 500 mile trek cross-country to the American embassy in Kabul – the site of several recent suicide attacks and one deadly truck bomb in early June that killed at least 90 people.

Their application for a visa? Denied. The girls even made a second journey to revisit the embassy. Denied again. There is still a chance that their robot is coming to America.

Back home in Herat, Team Afghanistan is racing against the clock, putting the final touches on their ball-sorting robot that will travel to the U.S. to compete against 163 other machines from around the globe. The students are screwing together joints, programming the machine's sensors, and still trying to find one chain.

Of all the teams around the world, the Afghan team is one of only two that was denied visas to travel (the other was the Gambia, which is currently occupied by a coalition of African states after a constitutional crisis in January).

Addiction experts warn McConnell's $45 billion bribe to moderates won't help with opioid epidemic

By Joan McCarter

Friday Jun 30, 2017 · 5:31 PM PDT

2017/06/30 · 17:31

WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 14: (EDITORS NOTE: Retransmission with alternate crop.) U.S. Vice President Mike Pence (2L) departs a Republican policy lunch with Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) (2R) on Capitol Hill on February 14, 2017 in Washington, DC. The lunch was held in the wake of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn resigning from his post last evening. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) — Vice President with Rob Portman—how easily will Portman be bought?

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In order to bribe Republican senators from the Medicaid expansion states hit hardest by the opioid epidemic, namely Shelley Moore Capito (WV) and Rob Portman (OH), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has thrown $45 billion in treatment funds at them, $4.5 billion every year for the next decade. That's not going to cut it, say addiction experts, because they can't offset the drastic cuts to Medicaid in the proposal.

Medicaid currently pays for about 1.2 million adults to receive opioid addiction treatment, according to an analysis from Harvard and New York University researchers. Repealing the expansion, those researchers found, would rescind about $4.5 billion in annual funds that currently cover addiction treatment.

The solution, at least according to Portman and Capito, is to insert that money back into the system, albeit as a grant rather than within the Medicaid system. The number could still shrink, however, as Republicans spend this week hammering out many of the remaining provisions of their repeal plan. […]

Addiction experts fighting the epidemic, however, said the senators’ proposal overlooks the complicated spiral in health issues that can be brought on by addiction.

“Sure, yeah, you know, it sounds wonderful. Here’s billions of dollars to help combat this issue. But the issue is larger than that,” said Mark Drennan, the executive director of the West Virginia Behavioral Healthcare Providers Association.

Senate Republicans are still talking Trumpcare, and plan to bring it back after July 4 recess. We absolutely MUST make sure they don’t have the votes. Keep calling your Republican senators at (202) 224-3121. Tell them “NO DEAL” on Trumpcare. Then, tell us how it went.

'Dreams on Wheels' tries to bring legal aid straight to undocumented immigrants in need

By Gabe Ortiz

Friday Jun 30, 2017 · 5:01 PM PDT

2017/06/30 · 17:01

Protesters march against President Donald Trump's immigration policy in Los Angeles, California on May 1, 2017, where tens of thousands are expected to take to the streets on May Day. / AFP PHOTO / Frederic J. Brown (Photo credit should read FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images)

When it comes to immigrant rights activism, some of the most important and consequential work hasn’t happened in D.C. or even state houses, but in an RV with a handful of attorneys. Since 2014, Santa Fe Dreamers Project has provided legal aid to immigrant clients via fixed locations and a roaming RV office, assisting immigrants with complicated forms, applying for DACA, answering legal questions, and helping others facing deportation. While an immigration attorney can cost up to $2,000, Santa Fe Dreamers Project charges only $150. It can mean the difference between staying or being ripped away from your home:

This catalyst for her mobile legal aid clinic came in 2006, before she was a lawyer. At that time [Sante Fe Dreamers Project founder Allegra] Love was a 24-year-old third grade public school teacher.

She was teaching a class of 20 children in a small immigrant town in the Santa Fe school district when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted a raid on her school. The next day, her class was reduced to just three.

“Kids just stopped going to school,” says Love.

Appalled at the politics in play within her classroom, Love decided she wanted to advocate for these families whom she had grown to respect and cherish during her brief teaching career.

“Why were we terrorizing these people?” she wondered. “They’re good people … They work hard.”

Cheers and Jeers: Rum and Resistance FRIDAY!

By Bill in Portland Maine

Friday Jun 30, 2017 · 4:30 PM PDT

2017/06/30 · 16:30

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…

I feel pretty and witty and...oh, what's the word?

Queer quotables as we head into the last weekend of LGBT Pride Month:

“I could not be prouder of the transformation that’s taken place in our society just in the last decade. I’ve said before, I think we’ve made some useful contributions to it, but the primary heroes in this stage of our growth as a democracy and society are all the individual activists and sons and daughters and couples who courageously said, ‘This is who I am and I’m proud of it.’ And that opened peoples minds and opened their hearts.”

---President Obama, final news conference on Jan. 18

"It’s definitely different. The biggest change is that gay culture is more normative. It was really important to me as a kid coming out that there was a gay community with physical gay places in the world. People coming out today don’t feel they have a specific spot. They don’t have to go to a bar. They don’t have to belong to gay associations or use gay travel pathways. Kids are coming out on Facebook now."

---Rachel Maddow, Playboy interview

“I say, you need to let people know who you are and you need to come on out. You don’t need to live your life in darkness---what’s the point in that? You’re never gonna be happy; you’re gonna be sick. You’re not gonna be healthy if you try to suppress your feelings and who you are.”

---Dolly Parton

[A snippet from the Trump administration's Pride Month proclamation would've gone here, but they didn’t issue one.]

"Effective immediately, transgender Americans may serve openly, and they can no longer be discharged or otherwise separated from the military just for being transgender."

---Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, one year ago today

"To all those lawmakers out there who are so obsessed with who’s using what bathroom and what plumbing they got downtown: Newsflash---you’re the weirdos.”

---Stephen Colbert

"I am young, I am gay, I am black. A true-blue Territorian. I am the nation's first openly gay, Indigenous parliamentarian. I am eternally proud of who I am and where I come from. I own it and wear it with pride."

---Chansey Paech, 28, the first Aboriginal and openly-gay politician in Australia

“I had the experience with The Joy of Gay Sex, when it was being distributed in Canada, that a woman thought she was buying The Joy of Cooking. She went home and looked up "chicken" and was absolutely appalled. She created a tremendous fuss.”
---Author Edmund White

That was fun. Same time next year?

Your west coast-friendly edition of Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]

Poll

2008 votes Show Results

Who won the week?

White House reporter Brian Karem, for defending the press against attacks of "fake news" by White House propaganda stooge Sarah Huckabee Sanders

Gay couples in Arkansas, who won a big victory in the Supreme Court regarding how their names appear on their kids' birth certificates

All the states (nearly half so far) who are saying NO to Kris Kobach's demand to turn over private voter information for his sham "voter integrity" commission

Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA), whose amendment to repeal the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force was approved by the House Appropriations Committee

Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold, who discovered fake Time magazine covers, with Trump's photoshopped face and fake headlines, hanging in multiple Trump resorts

Scientist Deborah Swackhamer, who was strong-armed by Trump EPA goons to change her testimony before Congress about the need for robust, independent scientific research…and told 'em to go pound sand

The green energy movement, as renewables overtake nuclear power output and 1,400 mayors vow to move toward 100% renewable energy even if Trump won't

The grassroots activists (special shoutout to the disabled ADAPT protesters) who fought Republicans on Trump's "Let 'Em Die Care" bill and forced them to retreat

Kossack Ellid, aka Lisa Evans, for her successful stint as a champion on "Jeopardy!"

Marriage equality in Europe, as Germany's parliament approves a same-sex marriage law

Movie director Patty Jenkins, as "Wonder Woman" becomes the highest-grossing live-action film to be directed by a woman

2008 votes Vote Now!

Who won the week?

White House reporter Brian Karem, for defending the press against attacks of "fake news" by White House propaganda stooge Sarah Huckabee Sanders

17%

343 votes

Gay couples in Arkansas, who won a big victory in the Supreme Court regarding how their names appear on their kids' birth certificates

16 votes

All the states (nearly half so far) who are saying NO to Kris Kobach's demand to turn over private voter information for his sham "voter integrity" commission

28%

556 votes

Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA), whose amendment to repeal the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force was approved by the House Appropriations Committee

13%

260 votes

Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold, who discovered fake Time magazine covers, with Trump's photoshopped face and fake headlines, hanging in multiple Trump resorts

115 votes

13%

270 votes

The green energy movement, as renewables overtake nuclear power output and 1,400 mayors vow to move toward 100% renewable energy even if Trump won't

98 votes

The grassroots activists (special shoutout to the disabled ADAPT protesters) who fought Republicans on Trump's "Let 'Em Die Care" bill and forced them to retreat

12%

231 votes

Kossack Ellid, aka Lisa Evans, for her successful stint as a champion on "Jeopardy!"

28 votes

Marriage equality in Europe, as Germany's parliament approves a same-sex marriage law

42 votes

Movie director Patty Jenkins, as "Wonder Woman" becomes the highest-grossing live-action film to be directed by a woman

49 votes

Scott Pruitt goes beyond blocking climate change data—will use EPA to build new arguments for denial

By Mark Sumner

Friday Jun 30, 2017 · 4:01 PM PDT

2017/06/30 · 16:01

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 02: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt answers reporters' questions during a briefing at the White House June 2, 2017 in Washington, DC. Pruitt faced a barrage of questions related to President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) — My mind is this open.

Scott Pruitt is taking the EPA past simply refusing to act on climate change, and acting as an idea factor for climate change deniers.

U.S. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is leading a formal initiative to challenge mainstream climate science using a "back-and-forth critique" by government-recruited experts, according to a senior administration official.

The program is designed to discover “vulnerabilities” in the scientific argument that can be exploited by climate change deniers.

The program will use "red team, blue team" exercises to conduct an "at-length evaluation of U.S. climate science," the official said, referring to a concept developed by the military to identify vulnerabilities in field operations.

Pruitt needs new ways to attack climate change, because he wants to go back to court and challenge the finding that rising levels of carbon in the atmosphere represent a danger that the EPA must address. The EPA is now engaged in spending millions to destroy its court-ordered function.

Executives in the coal industry interpret the move as a step toward challenging the endangerment finding, the agency's legal foundation for regulating greenhouse gases from cars, power plants and other sources. Robert Murray, CEO of Murray Energy Corp., said Pruitt assured him yesterday that he plans to begin reviewing the endangerment finding within months.

'Rather go to jail than to die without Medicaid!' Disability activists arrested at senator's office

By Jen Hayden

Friday Jun 30, 2017 · 3:31 PM PDT

2017/06/30 · 15:31

Disability activists being arrested at Sen. Cory Gardner's office — "Shame on you, Senator Gardner!"

Colorado disability activists have been trying to meet with Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) to discuss the

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pending Republican healthcare bill, one Sen. Gardner had a hand in writing, that absolutely decimates Medicaid, leaving disabled citizens in terrifying limbo. Many will not be able to stay in their homes and could be forced into institutions if their Medicaid benefits are taken away.

Sen. Gardner’s staff refused to meet with them and these fearless activists decided to settle in for the night. Their reason for hunkering down and demanding a meeting is nothing short of heartbreaking:

When asked why they would choose to spend all night in the hallway, Morris responded, “because they spend the night in a hallway in this building or they spend the rest of their life in an institution where they’re locked away.”

3 ppl slept in their wheelchairs at @SenCoryGardner's office last night. Not leaving until he promises no cuts to Medicaid #ADAPTandRESIST pic.twitter.com/ADwlIakJBD
Ã¢ÂÂ Dominick Evans (@dominickevans) June 28, 2017

The overnight protest stretched into two nights and was headed into a third when Sen. Gardner’s office and the Denver police showed up late Thursday to tell the constituents they were violating the lease by having people sleep in the building and they had to go or face arrest. They held their ground, chanting, “Rather go to jail than to die without Medicaid” and one by one, they were arrested.

Cartoon: The Amazon economy

By BrianMcFadden

Friday Jun 30, 2017 · 3:01 PM PDT

2017/06/30 · 15:01

Jeff Bezos is buying Whole Foods and now Amazon’s one step closer to becoming the kind of monopolistic mega-corporation previously only seen in the Robocop franchise.

The days of antitrust laws are long gone, but maybe one day there will be the political will to break up Bezos’ empire like Ma Bell and Standard Oil.

Texas Supreme Court throws out pro-gay marriage benefits ruling to test 'reach' of Obergefell

By Kerry Eleveld

Friday Jun 30, 2017 · 2:31 PM PDT

2017/06/30 · 14:31

Ramona Ramon, left, smiles as Juanita Ramon-Pacheco wipes tears from her eyes after the couple received a marriage license at the Nueces County Courthouse on Friday, June 26, 2015, in Corpus Christi, Texas. The couple has been together for 17 years and ha — Ramona Ramon, left, smiles as Juanita Ramon-Pacheco wipes tears from her eyes after the couple received a marriage license at the Nueces County Courthouse on Friday, June 26, 2015, in Corpus Christi, Texas. The couple had been together for 17 years.

The U.S. Supreme Court just summarily dismissed an Arkansas case that tested whether the equal treatment conferred upon same-sex couples by the high court's 2015 marriage decision extends to the realm of birth certificates and parenting.

The Texas Supreme Court now seems committed to testing the bounds of that equal treatment in the realm of benefits, writes the Texas Tribune:

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday threw out a lower court ruling that said spouses of gay and lesbian public employees are entitled to government-subsidized same-sex marriage benefits. The state's highest civil court unanimously ordered a trial court to reconsider the case.

As part of a case challenging Houston’s benefits policy, the Supreme Court suggested a landmark ruling legalizing same-sex marriage does not fully address the right to marriage benefits. Justice Jeffrey Boyd, writing on behalf of the court in a 24-page opinion, said there’s still room for state courts to explore the “reach and ramifications” of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges.

“We agree with the Mayor [of Houston] that any effort to resolve whether and the extent to which the Constitution requires states or cities to provide tax-funded benefits to same-sex couples without considering Obergefell would simply be erroneous,” Boyd wrote.“On the other hand, we agree… that the Supreme Court did not address and resolve that specific issue in Obergefell.”

The article notes that LGBTQ advocates will probably appeal the ruling to federal courts.

But we are likely to see many more challenges of this sort designed to test the depth and breadth of what the Supreme Court meant in Obergefell. Whether we like it or not, those challenges are coming, which means it's probably better for the LGBTQ movement if they come while Justice Anthony Kennedy still sits on the court. He's more likely than any Trump replacement for him to protect the integrity of the decisions he wrote equalizing treatment for same-sex couples.

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