With respect to the government’s purpose of “providing an institutional basis for defining the fundamental relational rights and responsibilities of persons,” same–sex couples are similarly situated to opposite–sex couples.

THE 2012 Republican presidential caucuses just got infinitely more interesting . The Iowa Supreme Court has upheld the right of same-sex couples to marry, with no restrictions. An excerpt:

People to watch for comment: Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal, and the governors of South Carolina and Minnesota, Mark Sanford and Tim Pawlenty. Opposition to gay marriage is falling rather dramatically, but in Iowa, where the Republican crown is given to the person who motivates the most evangelical, religious-right conservatives to caucus for him, there is no room for this decision.

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