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4 Reasons Why Gay Marriage Is Safe, Even After Justice Kennedy Retires
4 Reasons Why Gay Marriage Is Safe, Even After Justice Kennedy Retires
Calm down, people; Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement does not spell the end of same-sex marriage.
By DAVID LAT
Jul 12, 2017 at 9:15 PM
When Justice Anthony M. Kennedy did not announce his retirement from the U.S. Supreme Court at the end of October Term 2016, I breathed a sigh of relief. ... First, as a pundit, I was relieved to see that my prediction that Justice Kennedy wouldn’t retire at the end of this Term — one that I first made last fall, and repeated last month — was vindicated.
Second, as a citizen, I was relieved that we would not have a confirmation battle over Justice Kennedy’s pivotal SCOTUS seat in the immediate future. AMK is the Court’s so-called “swing vote” on a whole host of critical issues, including abortion, affirmative action, free speech, and same-sex marriage. Filling his seat will be far more consequential than replacing Justice Antonin Scalia with Justice Neil M. Gorsuch.
The fight over Justice Kennedy’s successor will be unfathomably ugly — which is exactly what we don’t need at this rather fraught period in our national politics. It’s not clear that things will be any better a year from now, when there’s a much higher chance that AMK will step down, but it’s hard to imagine them getting any worse. A lot can happen in a year; let’s hope things calm down between now and then.
But here is one thing I’m not worried about. I’m not worried about what Justice Kennedy’s retirement will mean for marriage equality. .... Here are the four reasons why I am not losing sleep over what Justice Kennedy’s retirement from the Court might mean for marriage equality.
{snip}
....
David Lat is the founder and managing editor of Above the Law and the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey; a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at dlat@abovethelaw.com.
Calm down, people; Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement does not spell the end of same-sex marriage.
By DAVID LAT
Jul 12, 2017 at 9:15 PM
When Justice Anthony M. Kennedy did not announce his retirement from the U.S. Supreme Court at the end of October Term 2016, I breathed a sigh of relief. ... First, as a pundit, I was relieved to see that my prediction that Justice Kennedy wouldn’t retire at the end of this Term — one that I first made last fall, and repeated last month — was vindicated.
Second, as a citizen, I was relieved that we would not have a confirmation battle over Justice Kennedy’s pivotal SCOTUS seat in the immediate future. AMK is the Court’s so-called “swing vote” on a whole host of critical issues, including abortion, affirmative action, free speech, and same-sex marriage. Filling his seat will be far more consequential than replacing Justice Antonin Scalia with Justice Neil M. Gorsuch.
The fight over Justice Kennedy’s successor will be unfathomably ugly — which is exactly what we don’t need at this rather fraught period in our national politics. It’s not clear that things will be any better a year from now, when there’s a much higher chance that AMK will step down, but it’s hard to imagine them getting any worse. A lot can happen in a year; let’s hope things calm down between now and then.
But here is one thing I’m not worried about. I’m not worried about what Justice Kennedy’s retirement will mean for marriage equality. .... Here are the four reasons why I am not losing sleep over what Justice Kennedy’s retirement from the Court might mean for marriage equality.
{snip}
....
David Lat is the founder and managing editor of Above the Law and the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey; a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at dlat@abovethelaw.com.
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