For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis, the election, and more, subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter.





Maybe we should just let California be the Gay State. That’s the latest thinking of some prominent red-state evangelicals, who fear that appealing California’s recent same-sex marriage ruling to the Supreme Court could backfire, legalizing gay matrimony from sea to shining sea.

Last week, the case for signing over California to the Prince of Darkness was made on American Family Radio by David Barton, a Christian activist who served as vice-chairman of the Texas Republican Party from 1998 to 2006. “Right now, the damage is limited to California only,” Barton noted. But he feared that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, the swing vote in an appeal, “will go for California, which means that all 31 states [that have banned gay marriage] will go down in flames.”

Hearing murmurs of shock from the radio host, Barton went on:

Well, I’m telling you, that’s what’s being argued by a lot of folks now. . .Knowing what Kennedy has already done in two similar cases to this and knowing that he’s the deciding vote, the odds are 999 out of 1000 that they’ll uphold the California decision. If they do, there’s not a marriage amendment in the country that can stand. And so the problem is that instead of California losing its amendment, now 31 states lose their amendment. And that won’t happen if California doesn’t appeal its decision. It’s just California that loses its amendment.

Barton might be more predisposed than many conservatives to let California do its own thing. He’s the founder and president of WallBuilders, a Christian “educational” group that is named after a moment in the Old Testament book of Nehemiah when, according to his website, Israelites “rallied together to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, and thus restore stability, safety, and a promising future.” Of course, walling off the entire state of Texas might be trickier, but Barton certainly isn’t the first person to float the idea.

H/T Right Wing Watch