DOOMED TO FAILURE: C-J Roberts’ Marriage Equality Dissent Has Hidden Message For Conservatives

[Surya Gayatri]

Friday’s landmark victory for marriage equality was handed down over the dissents of four justices, each of whom wrote their own dissenting opinion. Of these, by far the most thoughtful and the most significant was Chief Justice John Roberts’s dissent. Roberts rejected the Constitution’s promise of marriage equality — a view which The Onion quipped will someday lead to him being a villain “in an Oscar-winning film about the fight for marriage equality.” Yet, in the process of reaching his conclusion, Roberts also rejected a particularly aggressive brand of judicial conservatism that is rapidly becoming ascendant in conservative legal circles.

Obergefell v. Hodges, in other words, is a double defeat for conservatives. At the same moment that a majority of the Court declared the United States to be a marriage equality nation, Chief Justice Roberts announced to his fellow conservatives that their most ambitious legal cases are doomed to failure.

Read together, Roberts’s King and Obergefell opinions may mark a turning point in American law. They suggest that the chief justice has grown tired of efforts to politicize the judiciary, and that he is particularly annoyed with his fellow conservatives for trying to achieve through litigation what they could not win in elections. If this interpretation of Roberts’s actions proves true, then the chief justice’s dissent from a decision bringing the blessings of equality to all 50 states may, ironically, be one of the most positive developments for liberals in the last several Supreme Court terms.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/06/29/3674897/roberts-obergefell-dissent-conservatives/

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Long but excellent juridical analysis of the Chief Justice's rulings. It would seem that he's beginning to take a judicial distance from his 'base'. This augurs well for future decisions.

[RKP5637]

1. Thank you for posting this!!!

[Surya Gayatri]

3. Pleasure! Good News...

[mmonk]

2. Depends on how you break down conversative vs liberal or vs nut job conservative.

He's still corporate rights and personhood. I realize you may not realize his real role on the court, corporate vs individual rights as well as any collective rights as a people.

[Surya Gayatri]

4. All Chief Justices evolve throughout their tenure, almost always towards more liberality...

Think Progress seems to believe there's hope for him yet.

[oldandhappy]

5. Thank you for the post.

I appreciate seeing this.

My reaction to all four of the 'no' vote people writing their own opinions was that there was a scramble going on but I did not know what was happening. This post helps me lots. I sort of get it!

[Surya Gayatri]

6. Glad it cleared things up for ya!

[GeorgeGist]

7. Citizens United will always be his base.