Perry v. Schwarzenegger -- week one -- the "beyond marriage" perspective

The last time we saw a full-blown trial on the constitutionality of a ban on same-sex marriage it was 1996 in Hawaii. The Hawaii Supreme Court had ruled that the state would need to show a "compelling state interest" in excluding same-sex couples from marriage and that the exclusion was necessary to achieve that interest. At the trial on remand, the state claimed that children do best with their