Envision an incident where a man walks into an Iowa bar and comes upon two women celebrating their wedding anniversary. Incensed over same-sex marriage in his state and spurred on by an extremist’s blog postings calling for the death of lesbians, the man pulls out a gun and fires at the women, killing one and injuring the other. He is prosecuted for illegal possession of a firearm. The surviving woman is denied her spouse’s federal Social Security benefits and is fined for not having purchased government-mandated health insurance. And the blogger is charged with a crime for his threatening posts.
This scenario captures four major civil rights and civil liberties issues that I foresee the federal courts grappling with in 2011. And as is often true with hotly contested legal disputes involving civil rights, every one of these issues is enmeshed in a heated political controversy.
Same-Sex Marriage
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