SUPREMES GO LAVENDER – AT 11:14 A.M. ET:  The U.S. Supreme Court decided 5-4 today that gay marriage must be legal in all 50 states.  From The New York Times: 

WASHINGTON — In a long-sought victory for the gay rights movement, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote the majority opinion in the 5 to 4 decision. He was joined by the court’s four more liberal justices.

The decision, the culmination of decades of litigation and activism, came against the backdrop of fast-moving changes in public opinion, with polls indicating that most Americans now approve of same-sex marriage.

Justice Kennedy said gay and lesbian couples had a fundamental right to marry.

“No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family,” he wrote. “In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were.”

COMMENT:  The issue here is not whether you or I favor gay marriage.  We have two gay marriages in our extended family.  Having worked in Hollywood, I've worked with many gay people over the years.

Ronald Reagan, a former actor, was the first president to have a gay couple stay at the White House.

The issue, though, is whether a court, even the Supreme Court, should make judgments on a cultural and religious institution that goes back thousands of years.  Once again the high Court is acting like a legislature, as it did in Roe v. Wade. 

A court decision has legal power, but no moral power.  A legislative decision has moral power in that it represents, at least in theory, the will of the people.

The law is now settled.  But it was settled by the wrong branch of government.

June 26, 2015