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LGBT rights take center stage at Supreme Court

Discussion in 'Current Events, World News, & LGBT News' started by Pret Allez, Sep 24, 2012.

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  1. Pret Allez

    Pret Allez
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    LGBT rights take center stage at Supreme Court: What to expect this week – LGBTQ Nation

    It will be intensely interesting for Americans to see what happens. At this moment in time, the Court's composition is such that for these cases, it basically just has Kennedy on the bench. There are reasons to be hopeful. He delivered for us in Lawrence and Romer. However, I have doubts that he will deliver this time. Part of the sell in Lawrence was that the Court did not have to decide the question of marriage. I wonder if the Roberts Court has contrived to hear as many queer rights cases so as to stuff them at the highest level, which would be a huge setback, and essentially crush the judicial strategy. (By the principle of stare decisis, if the Court were to do something really bad, it probably wouldn't reverse itself for quite some time, maybe a decade.)

    What are you worried about? What are you hopeful for?

    The thing that I most want to see regardless of the outcomes of these cases is for the precedent to be established that statutes making distinctions based on sexual orientation and gender identity must be subjected to strict scrutiny.
     
    #1 Pret Allez, Sep 24, 2012
  2. Waterlilly

    Waterlilly
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    I'm a little aprehensicpve about the supreme court taking on big LGBT cases. I've been studying case law related to women's rights for my women and law class. Especially early on and with conservative courts, the court actually sometimes made discrimination. Later courts can eventually overturn earlier courts' policies, but it expected that they won't and what courts decide is law. If this court takes on gay marriage cases, how are we to know that they won't make things worse?

    Sex discrimination against women isn't even subject to strict scrutiny. Courts have generally been loathe to require that level of judicial scrutiny to anything other than race and national origin. I'm just not hopeful.
     
    #2 Waterlilly, Sep 24, 2012
  3. Rakkaus

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    Probably the most important thing about the outcome of the next presidential election is Supreme Court appointments. Ginsburg is 80, Breyer is 74. If Romney gets elected and gets to appoint their replacements, that could set back the Supreme Court for us for years if anyone retires.

    That's why any LGBTQ person who is supporting Romney because he thinks the president doesn't have any real influence over LGBTQ issues: a conservative majority Supreme Court could delay things like nationwide marriage equality for decades.
     
    #3 Rakkaus, Sep 24, 2012
  4. kris B

    kris B
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    I can't wait to find out which cases the Supremes are going to take up...
     
    #4 kris B, Sep 25, 2012
  5. Emberstone

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    last i heard, none of the doma cases or the prop 8 cases are being taken up at this time. either they will reject seeing them at a later time, or take them during a different session.
     
    #5 Emberstone, Sep 25, 2012
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