Seven Takeaways from Marriage Week at the Supreme Court

BY ARI EZRA WALDMAN

For three hours over two days, the Supreme Court discussed the freedom to marry. The justices asked questions about the law of the love after recent polling showed that 58 % of Americans, and a slew of moderate-to-conservative politicians, supported equality. This trend caught the attention of an unusually ascerbic Chief Justice, who said that leaders were "falling over themselves" to support gay rights. His convenient ignorance of the litany of burdens and discriminations we face every day, his insensitivity and willful ignorance of the plight of sexual minorities, and Roberta Kaplan's inadequate response to his flippancy should not damper the euphoric feeling that what happened this week was historic. The freedom to marry had a hearing at the Supreme Court, where the shallowness of discrimination was laid bare for the world to see. As we await favorable decisions in June, the world is a different place today than it was on Monday.

Many media are making conclusions about the end of DOMA, a narrow standing decision in the Prop 8 case, and the end of the culture wars with a victory for gay rights. Some of these predictions may turn out to be right, but we can't know that and it misses the true legal and political lessons from the last two days.

Having already offered detailed summaries and initial analysis of the Prop 8 (Part 1 and Part 2) and DOMA hearings (Part 1 and Part 2), I would like to take a step back and think more broadly. Here are the seven takeaways from Marriage Week at the Supreme Court.

1. The bench was "hot," asking lots of questions, but don't read too much into those questions.

Just because a justice asks a question critiquing one side's argument does not necessarily point to his or her ultimate decision. Judges play the devil's advocate for many reasons other than preening. If these cases were so open and shut, there would be no need for briefs, reply briefs, and oral argument; neither side ever has a perfect case. Therefore, the justices need to probe the logical, legal, and policy problems, not only to help them decide the case but also to determine the best way to decide the ultimate question. Oral argument questions are also just as much about persuading colleagues as challenging attorneys. Justice Ginsburg may have thought of something that the Chief Justice missed, or vice versa; Justice Sotomayor's demand that Paul Clement give her a single reason for discriminating against gay couples, and his inability to do so, may have worried the Chief and Justices Kennedy and Alito about siding with an impossibly weak argument.

SIX ADDITIONAL TAKEAWAYS, AFTER THE JUMP...

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Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

(via jmg)

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