During the oral argument in the Prop 8 case, Justice Kagan pointed out that if marriage really was all about procreation, we should not issue licenses to those over 55 because they are nearly always infertile. Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council tries to offer a response that attorney Charles Cooper did not:
Category Archive: Constitutional law
Apr 02 2013
SCOTUS Issues Good Ruling on Police Dogs
After royally screwing up a ruling on the use of dogs to sniff for drugs a few weeks ago, and in the midst of all the attention paid to the marriage equality cases, the Supreme Court issued a ruling in Florida v Jardines that at least puts some limits on the use of dogs to …
Apr 01 2013
Chief Justice Refused to Defend Law in 1990
Conservatives have thrown a fit over the Obama administration’s decision to stop defending the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, calling it “unprecedented” and a terrible breach of their responsibility. And Chief Justice John Roberts went at it from the other end, arguing that if Obama really believed the law was unconstitutional, he should …
Apr 01 2013
Staver Lies About DOMA
Mat Staver is not only the worst lawyer in America not named Orly Taitz or Larry Klayman, he’s also a baldfaced liar. That’s the only reasonable thing one can conclude after reading what he said about the Obama administration and the DOMA case, which is being promoted by the Worldnutdaily, of course.
Apr 01 2013
Petition Demands Scalia Recusal on Marriage Cases
Here’s a really, really bad idea. A petition has been launched demanding that Justice Scalia recuse himself from the marriage equality cases because he has shown “bias and contempt for GLBT issues.” Absolutely not, and be very careful what you wish for. That same illegitimate basis could be used to force liberal justices to recuse …
Mar 29 2013
A Remarkable Exchange in the DOMA Case
There was one rather remarkable exchange during the oral argument on the DOMA case between Justice Kagan and Paul Clement, representing the House Republicans in defending the law. Clement was arguing that Congress had a firm rational basis for passing the law, but Kagan quoted the House report on the passage of the bill:
Mar 29 2013
Scalia and Sociological Evidence
During the oral argument on the Prop 8 case, Justice Scalia trotted out the tired old “gosh, this same-sex marriage stuff is so new that we have no idea what effect it will have” argument and he claimed that this was a matter of some controversy among sociologists.
Mar 29 2013
Farah on Justice Kennedy
As the Supreme Court takes up the two marriage equality cases this week, Joseph Farah has a column about Justice Anthony Kennedy that picks up on the same lines the justice delivered in Sacramento a couple weeks ago that I wrote about when it happened, about the idea of legislating from the bench. He asks …
Mar 29 2013
Pilon on Marriage Equality and Abortion
Roger Pilon, the vice president of legal affairs for the Cato Institute, has a column at the Huffington Post responding to an editorial in the Wall Street Journal urging the Supreme Court to reject marriage equality. The WSJ argued that if the Supreme Court mandates marriage equality, it would have the same discordant result as …
Mar 28 2013
Scalia and Olson on Loving v Virginia
During the oral argument in the Prop 8 case on Tuesday, Justice Scalia trotted out the old conservative premise that no right exists if it wasn’t recognized long before now. This is one of the questions he asked and Ted Olson’s excellent reply to it:
Mar 28 2013
DOMA Likely Gone, But on Narrow Grounds
Lyle Denniston’s recap of the oral argument in Windsor v United States reaches much the same conclusion that most other observers have reached, that there appears to be five votes for overturning Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, but likely not on broad equal protection grounds. Justice Kennedy, again the key swing vote, …
Mar 28 2013
Possible Outcomes in the Marriage Equality Cases
The New York Times has a very helpful chart that shows all of the possible outcomes of the two marriage equality cases being heard by the Supreme Court this week, one involving Prop 8 in California and the other involving the Defense of Marriage Act.
Mar 27 2013
Alito’s Absurd Question on Marriage Equality
Justice Samuel Alito asked a question during oral argument in the Prop 8 case on Tuesday that expressed one of the most commonly heard arguments used against marriage equality: It’s just too risky, how do we know it isn’t going to be very bad for society?
Mar 27 2013
Oral Argument: DOMA in Trouble
The oral arguments in the DOMA case are over and the early reports are that it looks like Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act is likely to be struck down. SCOTUSblog even tweeted that the court is “80% likely to strike down DOMA,” noting that Kennedy has federalist concerns and the four liberals …
Mar 27 2013
Ellis Washington and the 6th Amendment
Ellis Washington’s latest Worldnutdaily column is yet another inane and badly reasoned attack on liberal jurisprudence, this time focusing on the 6th Amendment, which details most of the protections for those accused of committing a crime. That amendment says:
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