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Dear John Letters
[font size="7"]Dear John Letters[/font]
A taxonomy of gay marriage arguments aimed at Chief Justice John Roberts.
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Chief Justice John Roberts is a busy guy. The 60-year-old has two kids at home and surprise calls for jury duty to contend with; he must serve as chief justice of the entire United States of America; and then he has 147 amicus briefs to read for Tuesday’s argument in Obergefell v. Hodges, the marriage equality cases now before the Supreme Court.
To boot, he is probably a little curious about what the media is saying about him as he prepares to hear arguments and think through his position on gay marriage. For a case that was originally styled as Justice Anthony Kennedy’s constitutional Super Bowl, there is a brisk side business in chief-based journalism this season. To the extent that the justices (a) read the newspapers and (b) care what the newspapers say, it’s reasonable to believe that opinion writers are trying to nudge Roberts along, perhaps emboldened by reports that pundit-bullying contributed to his last-minute vote switch in the 2012 Obamacare appeal.
While political pundit-lobbying from the left is often met by equal and opposite pundit-bullying from the right, as well as by the growing meta-phenomenon of pundit-lobbying-against-pundit-bullying, it’s fairly clear that there have been a good many “Dear John” letters penned in support of gay marriage.
In case the chief is interested in a pundit-taxonomy of pundit-lobbying around the same-sex marriage issue (meta! On skates!), here is a brief summary of the arguments being made to sway him.
A taxonomy of gay marriage arguments aimed at Chief Justice John Roberts.
[center]
[/center]
Chief Justice John Roberts is a busy guy. The 60-year-old has two kids at home and surprise calls for jury duty to contend with; he must serve as chief justice of the entire United States of America; and then he has 147 amicus briefs to read for Tuesday’s argument in Obergefell v. Hodges, the marriage equality cases now before the Supreme Court.
To boot, he is probably a little curious about what the media is saying about him as he prepares to hear arguments and think through his position on gay marriage. For a case that was originally styled as Justice Anthony Kennedy’s constitutional Super Bowl, there is a brisk side business in chief-based journalism this season. To the extent that the justices (a) read the newspapers and (b) care what the newspapers say, it’s reasonable to believe that opinion writers are trying to nudge Roberts along, perhaps emboldened by reports that pundit-bullying contributed to his last-minute vote switch in the 2012 Obamacare appeal.
While political pundit-lobbying from the left is often met by equal and opposite pundit-bullying from the right, as well as by the growing meta-phenomenon of pundit-lobbying-against-pundit-bullying, it’s fairly clear that there have been a good many “Dear John” letters penned in support of gay marriage.
In case the chief is interested in a pundit-taxonomy of pundit-lobbying around the same-sex marriage issue (meta! On skates!), here is a brief summary of the arguments being made to sway him.
Read More.