“They’re are using that to control you, to control me, to control life. That’s why Obamacare, Agenda 21, NDAA. All these things are the collective over the individual,” Dr. Greg Brannon, a Republican candidate for Senate in North Carolina who has led in some polls, said on a local radio program in 2012. He was talking about fears of vaccines. “The spirit of 1776 must rebirthed because we are living the Orwellian 1984,” he went on to say.

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“The CIA’s decision to access the resources and work product of the legislative branch without permission is absolutely indefensible,” Reid writes.

Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid slammed the Central Intelligence Agency Wednesday, accusing the agency of attempting to intimidate Congress and undermine congressional efforts to oversee its activities.

In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder Reid charged that CIA officials have conducted a "transparent attempt to intimidate the [Senate Intelligence] Committee and undermine its oversight of the Agency."

"The CIA's decision to access the resources and work product of the legislative branch without permission is absolutely indefensible, regardless of the context. This action has serious separation of powers implications," Reid warned.

Over the last several weeks the CIA and Intelligence Chairman Dianne Feinstein have engaged in an increasingly angry public and private fight over the agency's surveillance of committee staff investigating the CIA interrogation and detention practices.

CIA Director John Brennan has publicly denied the agency spied on Feinstein's committee, and the agency has accused Senate staff of illegally obtaining classified documents from CIA computers.

But the California Democrat has steadfastly insisted Brennan personally informed her of the spying and dismisses out of hand claims staff hacked the CIA. The situation — and Feinstein's anger — have caused heartburn for the White House, which appeared to dispatch Chief of Staff Denis McDonough to the Hill minutes after Feinstein gave an angry floor speech detailing the scandal.

In his letter, Reid points to the decision by the CIA's acting general counsel to refer criminal complaints to DOJ against Senate staff as an act of intimidation, arguing that "the allegation that Senate committee staff who have no technical training somehow hacked into the CIA's highly secure classified networks is so absurd as to be comical."

Noting that he has begun an internal Senate investigation, Reid bluntly charges that the "CIA has not only interfered with the lawful congressional oversight of its activities, but has also seemingly attempted to intimidate its overseers by subjecting them to criminal investigation. These developments strike at the heart of the constitutional separation of powers."

Although Reid does not directly ask Holder to drop the investigation, the language of the letter seems to indicate that is his intent. "The CIA cannot be permitted to undermine Congress's ability to serve as an effective check on executive power as our nation's Founders intended. I trust you will carefully examine these concerns as the Department of Justice determines how to proceed," Reid concluded.

The Russian response to a round of new U.S. sanctions.

WASHINGTON — The Russian Foreign Ministry announced a round of sanctions against U.S. officials in response to new, heavier sanctions against Vladimir Putin's inner circle and a bank that services them.

Russia is imposing sanctions on Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs Caroline Atkinson, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Speaker of the House John Boehner, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Mary Landrieu, Sen. John McCain, and Sen. Dan Coats.

The officials are barred from entering Russia.

"The speaker is proud to be included on a list of those willing to stand against Putin's aggression," Boehner's spokesman Michael Steel said in a statement on Thursday.

Menendez tweeted, "If standing up for #democracy & sovereignty in #Ukraine means I'm #SanctionedByPutin, I'll take it."

"While I'm disappointed that I won't be able to go on vacation with my family in Siberia this summer, I am honored to be on this list," Coats said in a statement. "Putin's recent aggression is unacceptable, and America must join with our European allies to isolate and punish Russia. I will continue to lead efforts on Capitol Hill to bring Putin to his senses."

The Daily Beast reported on Tuesday that Russia would sanction some U.S. senators, though some named in the report, like Sen. Dick Durbin, are not on the list, and others who were reported to not be on the list, like Reid, are on it.

The Russian response has been received as less potent than the new U.S. sanctions. The United States announced a round of sanctions targeting officials and oligarchs with close ties to Putin as well as Bank Rossiya — individuals and entities that many Russia watchers never expected to be hit with sanctions.

This post has been updated to include Coats' statement.

LINK: The New U.S. Sanctions Against Russia Are For Real

You may not have heard of them — but the new targets are Putin’s actual inner circle.

The head of state-run monopoly Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin addresses a Franco-Russian Economic Forum on Nov. 28, 2013.

ERIC PIERMONT/AFP / Getty Images

The names on the latest list of sanctions released by the White House on Thursday read like a who's who of Vladimir Putin's innermost circle — ex-KGB colleagues, top advisers, and the men believed to hold the Russian president's personal purse strings.

There's Boris and Arkady Rotenberg, whom Putin brought with him from St. Petersburg and who have grown enormously wealthy since. There is Gennady Timchenko, a secretive oil trader who handles a large bulk of Russia's lucrative oil shipments and who once sued The Economist for merely calling him Putin's friend. The two are said to be judo buddies. There's Vladimir Yakunin, the head of Russian Railways and a top champion of the Russian Orthodox Church. The list goes on and on and includes ministers, lawmakers, businessmen all with two things in common: their wealth and their proximity to Putin.

The Kremlin must be freaking out.

The first round of sanctions announced by Obama on Monday was symbolic but ultimately toothless, targeting people with big mystiques but little power in today's Kremlin — people like the former gray cardinal, Vladislav Surkov, and Yelena Mizulina, who authored Russia's anti-gay law. Those on the list quickly laughed it off. Surkov said he was fine being slapped with sanctions and a visa ban: "In the U.S. I care about Tupac Shakur, Jackson Pollock, and Allen Ginsberg. I don't need a visa to enjoy their works," he told a Russian newspaper. Dmitry Rogozin, a bombastic deputy prime minister, spent the day teasing Obama with cartoons on Twitter.

These sanctions are different. They hit as close to Putin without targeting the man himself. There are a couple notable absences from the list — Alexei Miller, the CEO of Gazprom, and, more importantly, Igor Sechin, the CEO of the state oil company Rosneft and one of Putin's hardline advisors. But by reaching to his favorite oligarchs, the U.S. has hit Putin where it hurts. There's a reason most outside Russia have never heard of these people — in Russia those with the real power stay in the shadows.

“First of all, if you read back on Lincoln, he loved telling the occasional bawdy joke,” the president tells ESPN Radio.

WASHINGTON — Fox News' Bill O'Reilly literally co-wrote a book on Abraham Lincoln. But when it comes to understanding the 16th president's lighter side, the current occupant of the White House says O'Reilly has it all wrong.

On ESPN Radio Thursday, Obama responded to O'Reilly's claim that "Abe Lincoln would not have done" a guest spot on Between Two Ferns, saying it's not based in historical fact.

"First of all, if you read back on Lincoln, he loved telling the occasional bawdy joke and being out among regular folks," Obama said.

As the Washington Post reported in 2012, Lincoln was indeed a jokester. And some of them didn't always land. A story with the punch line "Now, by God, I'll see if I can't cut up this turkey without farting" was included in the Post's list of Lincoln's worst jokes.

Obama's mention of Lincoln came during a longer response to a question about why he does so many unorthodox appearances like the one on Between Two Ferns and Thursday's scheduled interview on Ellen.

The president said his goal with the media strategy is to talk to Americans who don't follow the details of politics closely.

"One of the hardest things about being president is being in this bubble that is artificial and and unless you make a conscious effort, you start sounding like some washed-up Washington stiff," Obama said. "And so you've got to consciously try to get out of that, if you want to remind yourself of the wonderful people that you're supposed to be serving, who have a sense of humor and aren't thinking every day about position papers."

Listen to Obama's comments:

A video uploaded late Wednesday night shows Georgia Democratic Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights icon, dancing to Pharrell’s “Happy.” A spokesman for the congressman didn’t immediately return a request for comment on the circumstances in which the dancing occurred.

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Here's part two:

Pharrell has partnered with the United Nations Foundation to celebrate Thursday's U.N.'s 2nd Annual International Day of Happiness.

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A misunderstanding.

WASHINGTON — The Drudge Report went big Thursday with KPHO reporter Catherine Anaya's story that White House Press Secretary Jay Carney gets questions from reporters ahead of the daily press briefing in advance so he can prepare his answers.

The story was false, and in an email to BuzzFeed, Anaya says the day of online speculation about it was "my mistake and I own up to it."

Anaya was at the White House Wednesday as part of scheduled group of local interviews the president granted. Anaya and the other local reporters in town for the interviews got special access to the White House reporters based there full-time often do not get, such as, she said, an off-the-record coffee with Carney and conversations with top White House staff.

Part of that special treatment included a conversation with a White House staffer about a question she planned to ask of Carney at the daily briefing. Anaya says a White House staffer asked her to submit her question ahead of time. She agreed, before deciding to scrap the briefing question and ask it of the president during their four-minute interview instead.

"As a local journalist I had no issue providing my proposed question in advance because I wanted to make sure it was an appropriate [question] for a national briefing and I wanted to make sure it was appropriate for Mr. Carney, but in discussing it with a staff member the night before we decided I would save it for the president," she said. "I was attempting to not waste national time on a local question but in my attempt at explaining that I unintentionally made it sound like that experience applied to everyone. That is my mistake and I own up to it."

In her standup from the White House, Anaya told a different story, one she now says was in error.

"[Carney] mentioned that a lot of times, unless it's something breaking, the questions that the reporters actually ask -- the correspondents -- they are provided to him in advance," she said. "So then he knows what he's going to be answering and sometimes those correspondents and reporters also have those answers printed in front of them, because of course it helps when they're producing their reports for later on. So that was very interesting."

In a statement posted to the KPHO website Thursday, Anaya walked that back. KPHO took the statement down shortly after it was posted.

Scott Davis, senior assignment editor at KPHO, told BuzzFeed the statement was pulled because "It was incomplete and not ready to be posted."

"It seems much had been inferred about my observations following my White House visit yesterday.

"First, I did not take notes during our coffee with Jay Carney because it was off the record. But when I referenced the meeting in my live reports I did say that it was a great opportunity to talk about the challenges of his day and how he has to be so well-versed on many topics each day.

"In my live report I also wanted to share my impression of my experience in getting a question answered during the briefing. I was indeed asked to provide my question in advance. Because my question was largely of local interest, I chose to save it for my interview with the President instead.

"My mistake was to lump that experience with my coffee meeting reference, inadvertently giving Mr. Carney credit for that when in fact it did not come from him. I regret giving anyone the impression that it was from conversation I had with Mr. Carney.

"I do not attend those briefings regularly and cannot speak directly to the process for non-visiting journalists.

"None of my observations stemmed from my off-the-record meeting with Jay Carney."

Reporters who regularly attend White House briefings are not asked to provide questions in advance, nor are they given answers in advance.

“I heard about that. I thought it was a pretty cheap stunt myself.”

Speaking on Ellen DeGeneres' show Thursday, President Obama called DeGeneres' widely retweeted Oscar tweet "a pretty cheap" stunt, acknowledging his record for retweets of a tweet.

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It was really just fought by hipsters.

You know Crimea, right?

It is located right between Borat and the Eiffel Tower.

You may have also noticed recently that Russians have decided to occupy and annex Crimea.

Reuters

But did you know 150 years ago there was a war over Crimea?

Shockingly, this war included the Russians and the Western powers of Britain and France. It also included the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Sardinia.

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Never, ever, the conservative radio talk show host said on his radio program Thursday.

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As of now, Tennessee officials must recognize three same-sex couples’ marriages.

Jay Paul / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — A federal judge has denied Tennessee's request to put the state's recognition of three same-sex couples' marriages on hold while state officials challenge the judge's original decision.

U.S. District Court Judge Aleta Trauger issued a preliminary injunction last week, but Tennessee officials have appealed the temporary order to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. In addition, the state asked Trauger to put the trial court's ruling on hold while the appeal is heard.

Trauger on Thursday denied that request, concluding:

The court finds that all four factors weigh against a stay and in favor of continuing enforcement of the Preliminary Injunction. Even if the court were to accept that there is arguably a "serious question" about the merits of its constitutional analysis, the defendants have not even approached their burden to show "irreparable harm that decidedly outweighs the harm that will be inflicted on others if a stay is granted."

Unlike in December, when a trial court refused to issue a stay in the Utah marriage case, Thursday's ruling does not result in same-sex couples being able to marry in Tennessee. The case is about marriage recognition — or, the state's treatment of marriages granted to same-sex couples outside of Tennessee. Further, this specific preliminary injunction only applies to the three same-sex couples who sued the state, so the only couples who can have Tennessee recognize their marriages currently are the three plaintiff couples.

A message seeking comment from Attorney General Robert Cooper Jr. was not immediately returned.

Read the court's opinion:

“The CIA believes in the necessity of effective, strong and bipartisan congressional oversight,” CIA spokesman Dean Boyd says.

Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

WASHINGTON — A CIA spokesman Thursday refused to respond to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's charge that the agency was attempting to "intimidate" Senate investigators, saying only that the CIA "believes in" the necessity of congressional oversight.

In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder Thursday, Reid flatly accused the CIA of attempting to stifle Senate oversight when it referred to his agency criminal allegations that Senate staff had illegally obtained agency documents.

The "CIA has not only interfered with the lawful congressional oversight of its activities, but has also seemingly attempted to intimidate its overseers by subjecting them to criminal investigation. These developments strike at the heart of the constitutional separation of powers," Reid wrote in his letter. Reid also raised conflict of interest concerns, noting that the CIA's acting general counsel himself has been subject to congressional inquiries.

Asked to respond to Reid's letter, CIA spokesman Dean Boyd provided the following response to BuzzFeed:

"CIA Director Brennan is committed to resolving all outstanding issues related to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's Rendition, Detention and Interrogation report and to strengthening relations between the Agency and Congress. The CIA believes in the necessity of effective, strong and bipartisan congressional oversight. We are a far better organization because of congressional oversight, and we will do whatever we can to be responsive to the elected representatives of the American people."

Aram Roston contributed reporting.

A web development snafu.

Dan Sullivan is a former attorney general of Alaska and is running for Senate as a Republican against incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Begich.

On Thursday afternoon, Sullivan's campaign website was online — but when searching on Google for Sullivan's issues page, a development version of the site could also be found.

The filler text on the development site quoted extensively from newsletters published by former Rep. Ron Paul.

Brian Donahue, a partner at CRAFT, a digital firm doing work for the Sullivan campaign, said the filler text was a vendor issue — and not something the Sullivan campaign did.

"We were made aware of so-called dummy copy, found on a development site, not on the Dan Sullivan campaign site," Donahue said in a statement to BuzzFeed. "Normally, placeholder copy is used during the development process. We contacted the vendor and they removed it. This is a mistake of a developer and not of the campaign."

A draft of the new website was online at "http://terraeclipse.nationbuilder.com/media" (It has since been taken down since BuzzFeed asked about it).

Via terraeclipse.nationbuilder.com

Including a bit where it says "an ex-cop I know advises that if you have to use a gun on a youth, you should leave the scene immediately, disposing of the wiped off gun as soon as possible."

Via terraeclipse.nationbuilder.com

"We assume that by keeping the already known torture pictures from the public's eye, we will be remembered only as a generous and good people. The younger generation is interested in experimenting. A dangerous war now spreads throughout the Middle East and Central Asia. Thousands of innocent people being killed as we become known as the torturers of the 21st century. Get rid of it. Get rid of it."

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A decade ago, mainstream publishers became convinced they could make millions by churning out books for the right — and now the bubble may be bursting. From Allan Bloom to Ann Coulter.

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“What’s going on there is horrific, it’s horrific,” Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart says. As violence in Venezuela continues, members of both parties expressed frustration at administration inaction.

Sen. Robert Menendez.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — While the world is captivated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a missing Malaysian plane, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is increasingly frustrated by the administration's inaction on another crisis: The political violence in Venezuela.

Since demonstrations began against the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in early February over poor economic conditions and security concerns, at least 31 people have been killed in protest-related violence. Opposition leaders have been jailed, and social media has been intermittently censored.

Both the House and the Senate have passed resolutions condemning the actions of the Maduro regime — but lawmakers are impatient for more action, especially from the Obama administration, and exasperated by the lack of American media coverage.

"I wish the Malaysian jet would land in Venezuela because then we would get coverage," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican.

"What's going on there is horrific, it's horrific," Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, another Florida Republican said. "What's going on there is getting very little attention and almost no attention from our administration."

"The sad part is that the administration could do something," he said. "We've written letters to the president detailing things he could do right now to show solidarity with the folks who are trying to recover their democracy. For some reason this president, frankly, at this stage is refusing to do anything."

Ros-Lehtinen and Diaz-Balart are leading the House effort to rally support for a bill that would impose sanctions on Venezuelan officials and authorize funds for civil organizations and protesters; a companion bill is currently working through the Senate.

"Ukraine rightfully has gotten a lot of attention but at the same time the Ukrainians are standing up for their rights — the Venezuelans were doing the same. Little by little we are losing Latin America to thugs and autocrats," Ros-Lehtinen said.

But it isn't just Republicans who want to see the Obama administration take action in Venezuela. Democratic Foreign Relations chair Sen. Robert Menendez is leading the upper chamber effort — along with Sen. Marco Rubio — to pass sanctions.

"What we are trying to do through our legislation is not only rivet attention, but rivet action that sends a clear message to the Maduro government that this is not acceptable," Menendez told BuzzFeed.

Menendez said he too would like to see Obama take stronger action on Venezuela.

"I have not seen in this particular case, unlike Ukraine where the president has been very firm and started a series of sanctions on his own, I have not seen the same type of response in Venezuela," he said. "It seems to me the crisis may be different, but it is a real challenge to democracy within our own hemisphere and a real consequence to the message that we send throughout the hemisphere about what is permissible or not for one government to do to its citizens."

The violence and protests shows no signs of slowing: Just this week, three more people were killed in Venezuela in protest-related violence. Maduro allies have launched a treason investigation into opposition leader Maria Corina Machao; another opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez, has now been in jail for more than a month. Corina Machao has since gone to appeal to the Organization of American States, with the delegate from Panama giving his seat to her so she could make her case.

Rubio has aggressively tried to shine a light on the situation in Venezuela for some time, addressing the crisis from the Senate floor last month. Rubio sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to meet with Venezuelan Americans on a recent trip to Florida to "discuss what steps, if any, your department has taken or intends to pursue regarding financial sanctions against individuals committing or ordering gross human rights violations in Venezuela."

The administration maintains it is taking action. Secretary of State John Kerry testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week that the administration was "not only speaking out but taking steps."

"We are engaged now with trying to find a way to get the Maduro government to engage with their citizens, to treat them respectfully, to end this terror campaign against his own people, and to begin to hopefully respect human rights and the appropriate way of treating his people," Kerry said. "And we're — we think it's time for the [Organization of American States], for the neighbors, for partners, and other international organizations to all focus on Venezuela appropriately, hold them accountable."

(For her part, Ros-Lehtinen described his answer as "hemming and hawing.")

A National Security Council spokesman told BuzzFeed in a statement that the administration has been "in touch with Congress on recent developments in Venezuela."

"Our immediate focus is on encouraging the start of a meaningful dialogue between the Venezuelan government and its people. With our international partners, we continue to look at what more we can do in support of that effort. At the same time, we've been clear about the need for protestors to be released and for fundamental freedoms like freedom of speech and assembly to be protected and respected," Jonathan Lalley, the NSC spokesman said. "It isn't just the United States that's expressed these views; you've heard the same from the OAS, the EU, and countries across the region. The future of Venezuela is for the Venezuelan people to decide. They have legitimate grievances that deserve to be addressed. We have strong historic and cultural ties with the Venezuelan people, and we remain committed to our relationship with them."

Lalley also said that the administration condemned the government's moves against Corina Machao, the opposition leader under investigation by the Maduro regime.

"This is exactly the wrong direction for the Venezuelan government to take at a time when grave economic and social problems need to be resolved through the democratic process…We join the international community in calling on the Venezuelan government to choose dialogue over confrontation," he said.

Meanwhile, Capitol Hill says they have no intention of giving up on some kind of action. The Senate unanimously passed their resolution supporting the Venezuelan people and only one member of the House voted against the resolution in that chamber.

"It was necessary to express immediate concern," Menendez said. "That alone was not enough … I'm looking forward to trying to move legislation when we return."

This story initially misidentified the 31 people killed in Venezuela's protest violence as protesters. Some were also members of the security forces and bystanders.

Connecticut Democratic Rep. Jim Himes, speaking in a town hall in Shelton, Conn., Thursday said Obamacare had “caused a lot of turmoil.” Himes, who also defended Obamacare, said “it was not a good thing” that people experienced canceled health care plans. “Particularly since the president made a very public claim if you like your plan you can keep it … turned out not be true,” Himes added.

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Here's the longer video:

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Here it is. An example of serious GIF storytelling, until it was deleted.

On Friday, Al Jazeera America posted an online teaser for their upcoming show On the Front Lines with the Taliban. The segment features reporting from journalist Nagieb Khaja, who embedded with a group of Taliban fighters who attacked an Afghan National Army base. The promo post was presented in the form of a GIF list, perhaps the first ever featuring the terrorist group.

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Asked whether Patton Boggs would continue to represent oligarch Gennady Timchenko, a partner said: “We’re not going to address that at all.”

Gennady Timchenko

Grigory Dukor / Reuters

WASHINGTON — A major Washington lobbying firm won't say whether or not it still works for a Russian billionaire added to the U.S. Treasury sanctions list this week.

A partner at Patton Boggs told BuzzFeed that the firm would not comment on whether it will maintain its business relationship with Gennady Timchenko, a Russian billionaire seen as close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In 2013, Reuters reported that Patton Boggs was helping Timchenko as he sought U.S. government funding to buy luxury planes.

"We're not commenting about any of the sanctions issues about any of the people on that list," said Steve McHale, a partner in Patton Boggs, when reached by BuzzFeed after multiple attempts over the course of 24 hours. "We're just not going to comment. We're not going to address that at all."

Timchenko was a prominent stakeholder in the oil and energy trading conglomerate Gunvor. He sold his stake in Gunvor the day before the U.S. announced a new round of sanctions against Russian officials, their cronies, and a major bank that services them. The Treasury said on Thursday that Putin himself has investments in Gunvor and might have access to Gunvor's funds. Gunvor said on Thursday that "Pres. Putin has not and never has had any ownership, beneficial or otherwise in Gunvor. He is not a beneficiary of Gunvor or its activities."

Timchenko has denied being linked to Putin and denied that Putin has a financial interest in his company.

The latest round of sanctions against powerful Russians in response to the Ukraine crisis is the most significant yet, with members of Putin's inner circle and the oligarchs who have gotten rich through their connections to the Kremlin being directly targeted.

“[R]egardless of whoever finds favor in the eyes of the most recent majority, the guarantee of equal protection must prevail,” Judge Bernard Friedman writes. Michigan cannot ban same-sex couples from marrying, he concludes. Update: The state’s attorney general is appealing the ruling.

Jayne Rowse and April DeBoer walk outside the Michigan courthouse where they are challenging the state's ban on same-sex couples' marriage

AP Photo/Detroit News, David Coates

WASHINGTON — U.S. District Court Judge Bernard Friedman followed on the heels of several other federal judges in recent months, finding Friday that Michigan's ban on same-sex couples' marriage is unconstitutional.

The trial ended March 7, and Friedman had said a ruling in the case would not come before this week.

In concluding his 31-page ruling, Friedman said the Michigan marriage amendment violated the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution. Referring back to the 2004 vote passing the amendment, he wrote that "regardless of whoever finds favor in the eyes of the most recent majority, the guarantee of equal protection must prevail."

Plaintiff April DeBoer, who sued to be able to marry Jayne Rowse, said in a statement, "Our family is ecstatic! We have waited so long for the day when I could call Jayne my legal wife and when both of us could have peace of mind knowing our three children would finally have two legal parents. Knowing that day will soon be upon us means the world to us."

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette filed a notice Friday afternoon with the trial court that he was appealing the decision to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals and has asked the 6th Circuit, in a separate filing, to put the trial court ruling on hold while the 6th Circuit considers the state's appeal.

The "emergency motion" was filed because neither Friedman's opinion nor the court's judgment makes mention of a stay keeping the judgment from going into effect immediately. That means same-sex couples can legally marry in Michigan currently — though the ruling came after county clerks' offices had closed for the day. When such a stay was denied by a federal trial judge who struck down Utah's marriage ban and by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, more than 1,000 same-sex couples couples married before the Supreme Court issued a stay.

"Given the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the Utah case, I fully expect our request for stay to be granted," Schuette said in a statement.

[Update at 10:25 p.m.: Washtenaw County (Ann Arbor), Mich., clerk Larry Kestenbaum announced his office, multiple sources report, will be open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday to process marriage licenses. Unless the 6th Circuit acts on the state's emergency request before 9 a.m. Saturday, it appears there will be legally married same-sex couples in Michigan before Monday.]

In his opinion, Friedman went through the testimony of the expert witnesses at trial, including a multi-page section detailing the heavily criticized "New Family Structures Study" by Mark Regnerus. Friedman writes, "The Court finds Regnerus' testimony entirely unbelievable and not worthy of serious consideration."

Then, in laying out his legal conclusions, Friedman wrote that the reasons claimed by the state for excluding same-sex couples from Michigan's definition of marriage included: "(1) providing an optimal environment for child rearing; (2) proceeding with caution before altering the traditional definition of marriage; and (3) upholding tradition and morality. Additionally, the state defendants consistently asserted that defining marriage is within the exclusive purview of the state's police power."

As to the optimal environment argument, Friedman concluded, "Taking the state defendants' position to its logical conclusion, the empirical evidence at hand should require that only rich, educated, suburban-dwelling, married Asians may marry, to the exclusion of all other heterosexual couples. Obviously the state has not adopted this policy and with good reason. The absurdity of such a requirement is self-evident. Optimal academic outcomes for children cannot logically dictate which groups may marry."

As for the caution argument, Friedman wrote that "the state must have some rationale beyond merely asserting that there is no conclusive evidence to decide an issue one way or another."

As for tradition and morality, he wrote, "The same Constitution that protects the free exercise of one's faith in deciding whether to solemnize certain marriages rather than others, is the same Constitution that prevents the state from either mandating adherence to an established religion ... or 'enforcing private moral or religious beliefs without an accompanying secular purpose.' As a result, tradition and morality are not rational bases for the [Michigan marriage amendment]."

The state, Friedman noted, pressed that the Supreme Court's decision striking down the Defense of Marriage Act was based on the fact that marriage laws are a state issue. However, Friedman wrote, "While the justices recognized the state's expansive power in the realm of domestic relations, they also noted that this power has its [constitutional] limits."

Friedman concluded that "[n]one of these proffered reasons provides a rational basis for adopting the amendment," and that the amendment is unconstitutional because it violates the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection of the laws.

[Update: This article has been updated to include the state's response to the ruling.]

Friedman concluded:

In its judgment, the court decided:

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Who would have guessed?

On Wednesday, President Obama asked everyone to start Tweeting photos of their personal injuries.

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