Remember when all the progressives and moderates were saying that a Defense of Marriage Amendment was unnecessary because Congress passed a law? Yeah, well, they lied:
A divided U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal law that defines
marriage as a heterosexual union, saying it violates the rights of
married gay couples by denying them government benefits.
Between legalizing abortion and the government dismantling of marriage, the USA has now officially entered Sodom and Gomorrah territory. I wouldn’t put too much confidence in that “God bless America” notion. The best-case scenario is that He’s not paying attention. Following American politics these days feels like watching Gibbon on fast-forward; an imperial decline and fall measured in years rather than centuries.
I find it remarkable that Republicans still bother passing this sort of law when it has been clear since at least 1973 that the Supreme Court will simply overturn anything that is effectively conservative. Amend or don’t bother.
UPDATE: And they effectively overturned Proposition 8 in California by refusing to hear it. Taken together, these two “rulings” make it official: American democracy is entirely dead.
The court avoided a ruling on the merits in a second gay-marriage case
involving California’s Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage, saying that
both the Supreme Court and a federal appeals court lacked jurisdiction
to hear the case. That means a federal district court’s ruling striking
down Proposition 8 stands, which could clear the way for same-sex
marriage to resume in California.
Notice how the Supreme Court will jump in and wave the Constitution whenever it wants to override something, but turn around and claim it has no jurisdiction whenever it wants to leave a lower court decision intact. Pass a law, pass a referendum, it doesn’t matter. The black robes now rule.