Benchslaps, Federal Judges, Gay, Gay Marriage, Litigators

Same-Sex Marriage Judge Benchslap: Litigation Is Between One Plaintiff And One Defendant

There's a certain level of irony at play when anti-gay marriage advocates decide the normal binary rules shouldn't apply to them....

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Or at least between one group of plaintiffs and one group of defendants. A Missouri judge was hearing a challenge to the state’s ban on same-sex marriages. Then the plaintiffs filed for summary judgment and sought a permanent injunction directing county clerks to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. All pretty standard.

But then the Missouri Family Policy Council filed a brief in support of the defendants. Which was jarring for the Judge Ortrie D. Smith since the Missouri Family Policy Council was not a party to the case and had sought no permission to file anything with the court.

Benchslap ho!

Judge Smith keeps himself relatively restrained but you can read between the lines, and the word between the lines is “exasperated.”

Typically, only parties may participate in the litigation. There are exceptions for those who are granted leave to participate as intervenors and those who are granted leave to submit a filing as an amicus. So far, MFPC has no basis for doing anything in this case.

As the title suggests, there’s a certain level of irony at play when anti-gay-marriage advocates decide the normal binary rules shouldn’t apply to their love of hating gay people and loving Chick-fil-A.

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Adding to his exasperation, Judge Smith didn’t kick the MFPC to the curb as much as he may have wanted to because he’s from the Peter Gibbons School and realizes his “only real motivation is not to be hassled, that and the fear of losing my job,” and with lifetime tenure, he’s really not afraid of the latter.

Rather than striking MFPC’s brief, the Court will sua sponte (and retroactively) grant MFPC leave to file the Suggestions in Opposition it has already filed. There seems little point in striking MFPC’s filing only to have MFPC come back and ask for permission to proceed.

So MFPC gets to file their brief because Judge Smith has no patience to deal with the annoyance of motion practice just to cure their mistake. Pyrrhic victory for MFPC: a judge who is lenient and doesn’t care less about BS technicalities than getting to the most efficient results. Doesn’t bode well for them.

The full order is available on the next page….

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