I wrote a NYT article arguing SCOTUS would be the most important 2016 issue in August
Back over the summer, I was asked to write an article for the Room for Debate at the NYT in response to the question: What is the most important issue for candidates in the 2016 election? I argued that the Supreme Court would be the most important issue.
I had no idea how right that would turn out to be:
Quote:
In March 2014, I followed the Campaign for Southern Equality to the Hinds County Courthouse in Jackson, Miss. As part of a series of actions for the organization’s “We Do Campaign,” same-sex couples were applying for marriage licenses despite the state ban.
Each couple was denied because, in 2004, 86 percent of voters chose to amend the state’s constitution to define marriage as “only between a man and a woman.”
“When the law changes, I’ll change,” I heard Hinds County Circuit Clerk Barbara Dunn promise each couple as she turned them away.
“This is our state, our home,” one woman sobbed, collapsing on her female partner’s shoulder after their application was rejected.
That moment of human indignity highlights for me how essential our federal court system is in protecting the rights of minority citizens against infractions by the majority.
As a Southerner whose region’s history is rife with tales of discrimination, I know that there is no more important issue for 2016 presidential candidates than the question of who they will nominate to sit on the United States Supreme Court.
More: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/08/17/what-college-students-care-about-in-this-presidential-election/one-supreme-court-appointee-can-make-a-difference
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