Back To Gay Marriage For A Moment

Lest we re-forget, back in 2010 James Taranto offered a Bold Prediction about the fate of gay marriage if/when the Supreme Court took up the California case:

...[W]e are prepared to offer up a prediction: When the Supreme Court takes up Perry v. Schwarzenegger--perhaps under the name Brown v. Perry or Whitman v. Perry--the justices will rule 5-4, in a decision written by Justice Kennedy, that there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.

This accepts the conventional assumption that the court's "liberal" and "conservative" wings will split predictably, 4-4. Yet while Kennedy cannot be pigeonholed in terms of "ideology," on this specific topic, he has been consistent in taking a very broad view of the rights of homosexuals. He not only voted with the majority but wrote the majority opinions in two crucial cases: Romer v. Evans (1996) and Lawrence v. Texas (2003).

The Scalia dissent in Lawrence is a classic vivisection of the liberal wing of the court and their on-again, off-again reliance on history, precedent and stare decisis.

Comments

[Janet]

that there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.

Absurd. Again - I wonder what they even mean by the word "marriage"? Do they know? It is meaningless now isn't it?
Gays as individuals have always been allowed to get married. A man couldn't marry a man because that wasn't marriage.

They can put anything in for "same-sex". Why stop there?
that there is a constitutional right to polygamous marriage.
that there is a constitutional right to cross-species marriage.
that there is a constitutional right to adult-child marriage.

[Captain Hate]

No wonder they want to substitute boring bureaucratic garbage in place of "fiction" in da publik skools. When Tolstoy or Austen or anybody talk about "marriage" it's obviously the retro non homo type. How judgemental.

[jimmyk]

Informed consent rules out children and beasts, but there's no argument against polygamy if same-sex "marriage" is okd. Of course there may be a penumbra or emanation I'm not aware of.

[Jane: Mock the Media]

I'm going to file suit. As a single person I deserve the same benefits as married people.

[Rob Crawford]

Jane, as a single person, your right to marriage is being violated.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Informed consent is a construct of the white power patriarchy, man.

[JeanD]

Jane, I was listening to WGN the other morning, and the host was talking about some group of single people who were put out that they don't get any special recognition for their singleness.

They feel left out, marginalized, ignored, and deprived because nobody throws a party for them (wedding/anniversary), fawns all over them, and gives them presents for being single adults.

I was heartbroken for them.

[sbw]

Okay, I'm coming in late to this.

Why is marriage the business of the State?

That is, unless it is to create a tax disadvantage?

[Jane - Mock the Media!]

They feel left out, marginalized, ignored, and deprived because nobody throws a party for them (wedding/anniversary), fawns all over them, and gives them presents for being single adults.

Yeah that - and don't forget the tax deductions. Someone needs to throw me a party. I'll go register somewhere.

[boris]

"Why is marriage the business of the State?"

Used to be people were supposed to be married before legitimately making new people. People used to think that was necessary for an orderly society or something.

Now we know better, just another example of how dumb those old ancestors were.

[Jane - Mock the Media!]

Now we know better, just another example of how dumb those old ancestors were.

Actually it's an example of how dumb the tax breaks are - now they discourage marriage. So get rid of them.

[cathyf]

Interesting history: the Republican Party was founded on the dual principles of anti-slavery and anti-polygamy.

One of the ways that sharia law works is that Muslims who live somewhere where it is not in force are exempted from its requirements if they conflict with civil law. So a wife has no right to object to her husband taking another wife if the civil laws allow it, but if it is against civil law then she does. So allowing polygamy would hurt Muslim women the worst...

[Sinries Gos Laborales Advice]

I think about half of all arranged marriages turn out happily, and half don’t… and in your culture it is exactly the opposite. I always hate it when my students are smarter than me