LGBT Litigation
Justice Scalia is Talking Sodomy Again
Published November 17, 2009 @ 06:54PM PT
He may arguably be the U.S. Supreme Court's most conservative justice, but for a man who likes to sell folks on traditional family values, Justice Antonin Scalia sure does like to talk about sodomy. His latest riff on the subject comes courtesy of an Ohio State University conference on the Constitution, where Scalia said that since the nation's founders didn't write sodomy or homosexuality into the U.S. Constitution, there's no good reason to think that people deserve the right to love whoever they choose.
Boy, if only the nation's founders had written that U.S. Supreme Court justices could be term-limited! Especially ones who go duck hunting with torture-loving ex-Vice Presidents.
Justice Scalia prodded folks who believe that the Constitution is a living document. "Did any provision of the Constitution guarantee a right to abortion? No one thought so for almost two centuries after the founding. Did any provision in the Constitution guarantee a right to homosexual sodomy? Same answer," Scalia said, according to the Associated Press. It's a line he's used before, so three cheers for soundbytes that last more than a year.
Gay Marriage is a Fundamental Right Under the U.S. Constitution
Published November 03, 2009 @ 01:15PM PT
Two federal cases are moving forward challenging the legality of bans on same-sex marriage. One case, stemming out of Massachusetts, asserts that the Defense of Marriage Act unjustly hinders states from fully recognizing the equal rights of gay and lesbian citizens. Another case, out of California, is challenging Proposition 8, the ballot measure passed last year that rescinded the rights of gays and lesbians to marry in the state.
This particular lawsuit has made a big splash this year, in part because the two lawyers behind it are Ted Olson and David Boies, the two attorneys that argued Bush v. Gore, respectively. Today, Boies penned an op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer that made a pretty damn bold statement. To play off a Miracle on 34th Street reference, Boies essentially said, "Yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as a constitutional right to gay marriage."
Boies makes the case that if you look at U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence, it's clear that precedent falls on the side of letting people love whoever it is that they want to love.
"The constitutional issue is quite simple," Boies writes. "The Supreme Court repeatedly has held that the right to marry the person of your choice is a fundamental human right guaranteed by the equal-protection and due-process clauses of the Constitution."
