With the Supreme Court's decision in the DOMA case, one question remains wide open as to whether a state that does not recognize gay marriages must still recognize the validity of a gay marriage consecrated in another state.
Coincidentally, a large number of the states where this would be an issue are also the same states the Supreme Court has set free from the strictures of the Voting Rights Act, leaving whose states free to enact changes to its voting laws and rules without having to come before the US Department of Justice to get preclearance of any such changes.
Of course, courts may yet soon decide that those states are forced to recognize out-of-state gay marriages. Those states may be barred from denying the benefits of marriage to those who have been lawfully married in another state, but must the state also be forced to protect those couples' rights to vote in state elections? Follow me below the squiggle for a ridiculous idea I had for a law that a moral, God-fearing conservative has to love....
So -- here's my proposal to Governors like Rick Perry who have such fear of gay marriage rights...and such contempt for voting rights of traditionally disfavored minorities:
Those states will have to recognize the out-of-state gay marriages, but they could still try to penalize the actions of those seeking to evade state bans on gay marriage by going out-of-state. They could force residents who have gone out-of-state to get "gay-married" to choose between in-state recognition of the marriage or the right to vote. They could make it a felony to go out-of-state to get a gay marriage and then attempt to live as a married gay couple in that state, contrary to state laws. And, since the couple would now be felons, the state could automatically purge the newlyweds from the voter rolls.
Thanks to the Supreme Court, those states previously under pre-clearance requirements will no longer have to get pre-clearance for a law affecting the voting rights of minority group such as homosexuals. Sure, they may have to defend the law in court, but that's a small price to pay to have the chance to penalize those gay-marriers, Besides, if they forfeit the right to vote, they can't vote on gay marriage questions in those states. Sounds like a real win-win proposition, doesn't it Gov. Perry? At least, you get to make lemonade out of the lemons that the Supreme Court served you today.
I urge the Republican governors and legislatures of those states to pass such a law, so we can watch the conservative justices' heads explode.