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Related: About this forum4 Reasons Why Gay Marriage Is Safe, Even After Justice Kennedy Retires
4 Reasons Why Gay Marriage Is Safe, Even After Justice Kennedy Retires
Calm down, people; Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement does not spell the end of same-sex marriage.
By DAVID LAT
Jul 12, 2017 at 9:15 PM
When Justice Anthony M. Kennedy did not announce his retirement from the U.S. Supreme Court at the end of October Term 2016, I breathed a sigh of relief. ... First, as a pundit, I was relieved to see that my prediction that Justice Kennedy wouldnt retire at the end of this Term one that I first made last fall, and repeated last month was vindicated.
Second, as a citizen, I was relieved that we would not have a confirmation battle over Justice Kennedys pivotal SCOTUS seat in the immediate future. AMK is the Courts so-called swing vote on a whole host of critical issues, including abortion, affirmative action, free speech, and same-sex marriage. Filling his seat will be far more consequential than replacing Justice Antonin Scalia with Justice Neil M. Gorsuch.
The fight over Justice Kennedys successor will be unfathomably ugly which is exactly what we dont need at this rather fraught period in our national politics. Its not clear that things will be any better a year from now, when theres a much higher chance that AMK will step down, but its hard to imagine them getting any worse. A lot can happen in a year; lets hope things calm down between now and then.
But here is one thing Im not worried about. Im not worried about what Justice Kennedys retirement will mean for marriage equality. .... Here are the four reasons why I am not losing sleep over what Justice Kennedys retirement from the Court might mean for marriage equality.
{snip}
....
David Lat is the founder and managing editor of Above the Law and the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey; a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. OScannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at dlat@abovethelaw.com.
Calm down, people; Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement does not spell the end of same-sex marriage.
By DAVID LAT
Jul 12, 2017 at 9:15 PM
When Justice Anthony M. Kennedy did not announce his retirement from the U.S. Supreme Court at the end of October Term 2016, I breathed a sigh of relief. ... First, as a pundit, I was relieved to see that my prediction that Justice Kennedy wouldnt retire at the end of this Term one that I first made last fall, and repeated last month was vindicated.
Second, as a citizen, I was relieved that we would not have a confirmation battle over Justice Kennedys pivotal SCOTUS seat in the immediate future. AMK is the Courts so-called swing vote on a whole host of critical issues, including abortion, affirmative action, free speech, and same-sex marriage. Filling his seat will be far more consequential than replacing Justice Antonin Scalia with Justice Neil M. Gorsuch.
The fight over Justice Kennedys successor will be unfathomably ugly which is exactly what we dont need at this rather fraught period in our national politics. Its not clear that things will be any better a year from now, when theres a much higher chance that AMK will step down, but its hard to imagine them getting any worse. A lot can happen in a year; lets hope things calm down between now and then.
But here is one thing Im not worried about. Im not worried about what Justice Kennedys retirement will mean for marriage equality. .... Here are the four reasons why I am not losing sleep over what Justice Kennedys retirement from the Court might mean for marriage equality.
{snip}
....
David Lat is the founder and managing editor of Above the Law and the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey; a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. OScannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at dlat@abovethelaw.com.
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4 Reasons Why Gay Marriage Is Safe, Even After Justice Kennedy Retires (Original Post)
mahatmakanejeeves
Jul 2017
OP
Eliot Rosewater
(31,134 posts)1. The United States ceased to be a democracy when the elected president
along with the overwhelming majority of the American people said they wanted Mr. Garland to be on the SC, and a minority said no.
WillParkinson
(16,862 posts)2. Sorry, he lost me with these words...
So to be totally honest, if we were writing on a blank slate, Im not sure the U.S. Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage. (Yes, I know heresy for a gay man in 2017.) I have textualist and originalist leanings (even if Im not as extreme as I was in my youth), and I tend to agree with the late Justice Scalia: the Constitution is silent on a great many things, leaving them up to the people and their elected representatives.