Defense of Marriage Act – Status


The Defense of Marriage Act was enacted in September 1996 by President Clinton.   Under DOMA, as the act is known, no U.S. state  must recognize a same-sex marriage from any other state.  In fact section 3 of the law codifies “non-recognition” of same-sex marriages for all federal purposes, such as insurance benefits for government employees, Social Security survivors’ benefits, and the filing of joint tax returns.

On May 31, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit issued a unanimous ruling on DOMA and became the first federal appellate court to rule the law unconstitutional.

To read more about the recent events regarding DOMA visit the ABA.org website for a comprehensive commentary.

Local Conservative Radio Host Picks Ken Rhoden

Posted by BLK

Just in the last few days, local conservative radio host, Bill Mick, released his popular How I Plan to Vote commentary. This article gives listeners and local residents his personal voting choices with some of the reasoning behind them. Bill is an involved member of the community, a conservative, and a very popular local radio personality on WMMB.

Bill released his vote choices for every race from the US level, to the state, circuit, and local levels.

Bill is choosing to vote for Ken Rhoden over his opponent saying,

“This is a question of which lawyer is best equipped to be the CEO of criminal defense in our area. Blaise Trettis is a career Public Defender and currently manages in the office. Ken Rhoden has worked in that office and in private practice. I prefer the business experience over bureaucracy in this case. I believe a new set of eyes managing the office will serve Brevard and Seminole better than more of the same. Ken Rhoden gets my vote.”

Several weeks ago Bill hosted a forum between Ken and his opponent.  You can listen to the entire interview or you can view the Bill Mick post interview video here.

The post interview video is very interesting for several reasons such as 1) Blaise did not know the budget method his own office uses, 2) Blaise lied in this video saying he is a first time candidate then backtracks with excuses about his campaign in 2008, and 3) Blaise clearly opposes improvements to the criminal rules of procedure that he doesn’t use nor seem to even understand.


Visit the Home Page of  KenRhoden.com

Friend Ken on Facebook

Politicians Say the Darndest Things Mailer

Many people have received a mailer in recent days about the false statements being made by my opponent and they have said they would like to be able to email a copy of it to their friends and colleagues.    Below is a copy of the postcard information and please feel free to share a link to this page via email, Facebook, or Twitter if you wish.

Transit of Venus – Once in a Lifetime Opportunity says Brevard County Public Defender Election Candidate, Rhoden

The transit of Venus is an exciting and possibly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. In the next few days (June 5 – 6) star-watching and planet-watching people all over the globe will have the rare opportunity in the astronomical realm when Venus is visible in the transit across the sky and sun. This will not happen again in this century.

What exactly is the “Transit of Venus”? And why is it so special?
Two questions that my family and I had so I did some research and found this information.

Venus crosses between earth and the sun (the planet Venus is visible in front of the sun) and this is what scientists call a “transit”. As Venus travels and the earth travels in its own orbit, Venus will move across the sun and we, on earth, will see a small black dot on the sun. One site I read referred to it as a small black beauty mark on the sun.

Because of the way the earth and Venus are tilted and how the respective planets are tilted on their axis the movement of Venus across the sun is very rare – happening in a pair, 8 years from each other and that is only every 100 years. (June 8, 2004 was the last time and in 2117 it will happen again – that is over 100 years from today!)

Here is some information/links that may be of interest to you. Just remember – do NOT look directly into the sun while viewing Venus. Use a pinhole camera or other safety deviceInfo on Transit of Venus. Those of us in Central Florida can view it generally in the evening of June 5.

Ken Rhoden Supports Active Duty and Veteran Military Personnel

Ken has always had an active lifestyle and when it comes to supporting both active duty and veteran military servicemen and servicewomen, Ken steps up.

Here are some photos about Ken’s most recent military events.

Ken with supporters at the Brevard Veterans Memorial Center