M. Sean Fosmire, who helms the interesting new blawg Logos, found an interesting amicus curiae brief on a West Virginia Supreme Court case dealing with the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The brief was filed by H. John Rogers on behalf of…

The Squirrel Party, U.S.A. (hereinafter referred to as "SPUSA") is a venerable social and political organization, which traces its origins to U.S. Senator Rush Dew Holt (D. W.Va.), the youngest person ever elected to the U.S. Senate. . . SPUSA is registered with the West Virginia Secretary of State as a political organization. Its by-laws limit its activities to matters dealing with 'principles, not personalities."

While its unclear how many other member the Squirrel Party has (other than the quirky former Harvard Law School graduate), they do have an interesting reason for appealing on behalf of the plantiffs. The brief explains that since the New York newspapers reported the Hatfield-McCoy dispute, West Virginians have been seen as “barefoot hillbillies” and the “regular butt on (sic) incest jokes.”

It has been said by some that the official motto of our State should be 'Thank G-d for Mississippi", the subtext being that if it were not for the Magnolia State we would be 50th in all national rankings, or nearly so. Even allowing for a little poetic license, this statement is perhaps close to the mark. SPUSA would respectfully suggest that a case such as the instant one offers our Supreme Court of Appeals, and by indirection the entire State, the opportunity to be in the vanguard of at least one social movement within our collective lifetime, rather than trailing the pack like a Sunday jogger in the Boston Marathon.
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The Honorable Court could do more to advance the image of our State as a progressive, literate and humane place to live than any $800,000 outlay for a minor bump on the PGA tour. Instead of being the butt of jocular conversations on both coasts (and everything in between), West Virginia would now be on the cutting edge of what is clearly the civil rights movement of the first part of the 21st Century.

Being a Native Texan, I don’t have first-hand experience of being from state with an inferiority complex (my brother, who was born in Arkansas, would be more understanding). I am, however, sympathetic to the plight of West Virginians. I’m just not sure that being on the vanguard of this particular social movement will be much help. After all, legalizing same-sex marriages won’t stop the incest jokes about hillbilly boys marrying their sisters. It will just change the punch lines to them marrying their brothers.