Wardlow gained a national platform in his role as he defended businesses that practiced unequal treatment of gay or transgender people on religious grounds.
In 2015, Wardlow penned a piece for FOX News criticizing the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that the Constitution guarantees a nationwide right to same-sex marriage.
Wardlow wrote: “Marriage is and always will be the union of one man and one woman for life, regardless whether the government incorrectly applies the label of marriage to other kinds of relationships.”
Unequivocal? For life?
Why that caught attention, that precise wording from Wardlow, is this - his first marriage, not the present one:
Register of Actions
Case No. 19-F5-05-012337
DOUGLAS GARY WARDLOW vs. LEONIE WEISHI HUANG
Case Type: Dissolution without Child
Date Filed: 01/25/2005
Location: - Dakota-Apple Valley
Party Information
Lead Attorneys
Petitioner WARDLOW, DOUGLAS GARY -- DOB: 07/03/1978 -- Pro Se -
EAGAN, MN 55122
Respodent HUANG, LEONIE WEISHI -- DOB: 11/22/1979 -- Pro Se -
ST PAUL, MN 55114
DISPOSITIONS
02/28/2005 -- Dissolution/annulment granted (Judicial Officer: Judge, Presiding)
OTHER EVENTS AND HEARINGS
01/25/2005 - Converted Filing Fee
01/25/2005 - FLD-Case Filed (Judicial Officer: Judge, Presiding )
01/25/2005 - ORD-Order (Judicial Officer: Sovis, Michael )
01/25/2005 - Confidential Information Form 11.1 personal information - Index # 1
01/25/2005 - Default Scheduling Request - Index # 2
[...]
Separated at the time, both in Minnesota then, wrapped up in a month - each pro se - a very quick uncontested default dissolution of the marriage. If there were any money arrangements that would have to be determined by the press examining the file. It likely will show nothing directly explanatory of a quite short marriage between two career people, why entered, how long, why abandoned in a possibly quite short time frame. That is a guess. Two spouses, each with a law degree at present, possibly so during the marriage. One with the better career arc than the other. A guess, the patriarchal inflexible one had difficulties with a spouse wanting to shine, and outshining. Which seems not the case in the present stable Wardow marriage. This one with children. The file should at least show duration of the marriage. Nothing is known here of the Huang citizenship status before, during, or after the marriage.
Online information not behind aggregator site paywalls is scant. Wardlow's campaign website about page and his Wikipedia page do not give resume-like milestone dates nor could academic milestone dates be found online for Huang, although each studied at Georgetown and might have met there, that being a guess. Wikipedia notes Wardlow spent time in Taiwan and mainland China. No dates given. Wardlow declined to respond to email inquiry sent to the email address he listed in registering his AG campaign committee with the Campaign Finance Board. The motives behind the entry into and exit from this first Wardlow marriage, its duration in weeks, months or years being beyond any web references encountered. Yet in understanding the candidate, examination of facts relating to a strange failed marriage are clearly open to full press scrutiny.
What is known about Huang, from web search:
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| The One That Got Away |
There is the date of the first marriage dissolution, "Dissolution/annulment granted" 2/28/05, per the court record, and this known from online about the second marriage, license dated 10/10/09:
Readers can research to verify, Huang also is licensed to practice law in New York, has focused on Intellectual Property law, and has served on a an NYSBA bar association committee with that focus. A successful lasting big firm career in a challenging practice field, without any hostility shown against any sector of the public, LGBTQ, or otherwise.
The question of Huang citizenship re the marriage with Wardlow is fair game to ask, given how GOP allegations against Illan Omar exist, that she "married a brother" for immigration advantage, allegations which are denied as false and not substantiated, but which nonetheless reverberate as sauce for goose, sauce for gander.
Furthermore, given how Alpha News was intent in wanting access to the Ellison marriage file, that outlet should be the one to inquire most vigorously about the Wardlow first try, yes/no?
UPDATE: What you can learn when you go back and read carefully, that one Huang item, the law firm's bio, "Ms. Huang focuses her pro bono work in the area of criminal defense." While in law school at Fordham she received an award recognizing her criminal defense clinic service. Read that bio.
What would Wardlow "law and order" mentor police Lt. Bob Kroll say about that? Just think. If they ever met, Huang and Ellison could swap war stories about the criminal defense work each has done or assisted. Nice.
FURTHER: As to Wardlow's secret blogging while clerking for Barry Anderson, realdougwardlow.com publishes:
Wardlow: Access to Contraception Goes Against “American Values”
October 28, 2018
Recent reporting by City Pages and The Intercept reveal that Doug Wardlow authored a secret, extreme right-wing blog in violation of judicial ethics standards, where he detailed his backwards and dangerous views on women’s health care and the rights of LGBTQ Americans.
In a blog post from November 2004, Wardlow laments that “activist courts” have subverted “the ordering of American values” and “the will of the American people” through their decisions to grant same-sex couples the right to marry, women the right to choose, and women and couples the right to use contraception as they see fit:
A sizeable portion of the left has now given up on America's original constitutive values. They subvert the ordering of American values, putting their own views on lesser political issues above the interests of democracy and liberty. The first sign of this has been with us for some time -- the use of activist courts to subvert the will of the people and foist liberal social values on society by fiat. The Massachusetts same-sex marriage decision is a prime example, as are the Texas sodomy case, Roe v. Wade and even Griswold v. Connecticut, the seminal contraception case.
The first marriage, however long it may have been, was "without child." Contraception is one way to have a marriage without a pregnancy, but there are others. So, the key question for Wardlow, "between a man and a woman for life" means what exactly, in the actual life history of Douglas Gary Wardlow, not as an abstract hypothetical, or for the others? Nietzschean specialness? Or taking a liberty with words vs actions seeming a good idea at the time?
FURTHER: With Huang's record of multiple residences stateside, and a number of relatives noted in the States, it is more likely than not that she is second generation or more established here, having citizenship before meeting Wardlow and before going to college. There remains a possibility otherwise, but not an apparent probability.
FURTHER: Link for the "for life" glide and slide. Yes, it is buried late in the item, and yes, the usage is not necessary but gratuitous, yet is that not exactly where one schooled in precise writing should be precise, being then on his second marriage? Surely a glide and slide likely would go undetected in context; until it was detected and tied to the man's own inextricable history. In short, he knew better. That his current marriage is intact is cheerful news, and his children look healthy and well cared for. But as surely as that is nice to see, he knew "for life" was a gratuity untrue to his experience when he wrote it.
FURTHER: Another conundrum for Wardlow, two web screen captures, each captioned as to source; focus word, "bullying," click the images to read:
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| From p.9 of 10 pages - Mar. 2017 ADF letter to School Board authored and signed by Wardlow, focus, final paragraph |
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| Nov 1, 2018 Strib LTE, authored by Wardlow's High School Classmates |
As I say not as I did? Contradictions do exist and are important.