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Tuesday, October 6th, 2020

Two Supreme Court Justices Just Put Marriage Equality on the Chopping Block

Author:     MARK JOSEPH STERN
Source:     Slate
Publication Date:     OCT 05, 20203:47 PM
 Link: Two Supreme Court Justices Just Put Marriage Equality on the Chopping Block
Stephan:   Samuel Alito, and Clarence Thomas, both of whom are completely out of step with the American culture, as endless polls have determined, in anticipation I think of Amy Coney Barrett being confirmed for the court, have come out formally stating their view that same-sex marriages should be made illegal in the United States. Absolutely amazing.  Of course, they have also made it clear that they would vote to overturn Roe v Wade.  These troglodytes are on the court as a result of the Republican decades' long campaign to restructure the nation's judiciary at every level to reflect the party's far-right fascist worldview. If Donald Trump is re-elected and Barrett is confirmed, I think you will see America's laws be pushed back to the 1930s. Basically, legislation by judicial fiat.
Associate Justices Samuel Alito (left) and Clarence Thomas Credit: The Advocate

On Monday morning, Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito reminded Americans that marriage equality is in imminent peril at the Supreme Court. Thomas, joined by Alito, wrote a screed in defense of Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, painting her as a modern-day martyr. The two justices suggested that SCOTUS must overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, which recognized same-sex couples’ right to marry, in order to preserve religious liberty in the United States. “Davis may have been one of the first victims of this Court’s cavalier treatment of religion in its Obergefell decision,” Thomas warned, “but she will not be the last.”

It’s no secret that Thomas and Alito oppose equal rights for LGBTQ Americans. But their Monday opinion is still profoundly alarming. These two justices did not simply state that marriage equality has no basis in the Constitution. They wrote that marriage equality is an affront to the Constitution, one that trammels the First Amendment rights of Christians. And they did so just weeks before Election Day, as Donald […]

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