Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi campaigns with Mitt Romney and Sen. Marco Rubio in 2012.
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi is firmly in the camp of those who'll have to be dragged kicking and screaming into reality on marriage equality. Bondi is asking U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle to continue the stay on his August pro-equality ruling:
If Hinkle lifts the stay, it is likely he would give Bondi another week to file an appeal to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta before allowing couples to marry, Simon said. [...]
“This Court has already entered a limited stay after recognizing the ‘substantial public interest in stable marriage laws,’ and it should continue the stay until the federal appeals court can review the decision,” Bondi wrote to Hinkle. “On balance, it is in the public’s best interest to wait for an appellate decision before implementing an order of this significance.”
Ah, the public, which in Bondi's eyes must include bigots
but not Arlene Goldberg, who, after sharing her life with Carol Goldwasser for 47 years, still couldn't receive Goldwasser's higher Social Security benefits after Goldwasser's death because their New York marriage was not recognized in Florida. And not the living couples whose decades of love and commitment are not currently recognized in Florida.
Bondi wants to delay recognition of their relationships for as long as possible, because—notwithstanding her own two divorces—she's all about "family continuity and stability" being "a legitimate state interest" best preserved by refusing to recognize partnerships of decades' duration. Just like she's the kind of law-and-order attorney general who delayed an execution so she could attend a political fundraiser.
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Who knows. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals may be the first appeals court to rule against marriage equality since the Supreme Court overturned part of the Defense of Marriage Act. But even if it does, Bondi is just delaying the inevitable arrival of justice and equality.