Is Obama serious that the Supreme Court homosexual marriage decisions were "a victory for American democracy"?
President Obama makes me think of the book 1984 when he claims that the Supreme Court decisions on same sex marriage "a victory for American democracy." But how exactly is the decision to strike down an initiative supported by a clear majority of the California voters "a victory for American democracy"? A position that was twice approved by California voters. The point of the unanimous California Supreme Court, which the Supreme Court overturned, was that the very point of the initiative process was to force outcomes that politicians didn't want to happen. If you then leave it up to politicians to decide whether to defend the initiative, you give them the power to gut initiatives they don't like. Finally, it is amazing how inconsistent the two SC decisions are on standing. The court gutted initiatives, but since the Obama administration wouldn't defend DOMA, if they had used the same reasoning there, the court wouldn't have been able to gut DOMA. Whatever one's views on same sex marriage, these court decisions are lawless and are an attempt by justices to get political outcomes no matter what the cost is in other areas.
Labels: homosexualmarriage
posted by John Lott at 12:38 PM
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"The truth is, that, even with the most secure tenure of office, during good behavior, the danger is not, that the judges will be too firm in resisting public opinion, and in defence of private rights or public liberties; but, that they will be ready to yield themselves to the passions, and politics, and prejudices of the day." –Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833
Initiative, Referendum and Recall were three tools Progressives put into many state constitituions in the early years of Progressivism, when it was necessary to overcome entrenched non-progressivism in the governments of the several states. Now that Leftism is the entrenched philosophy of government, those tools aren't needed. Initiative is dead, Referendum seems never to have been used much, the only one left is recall. It still worked in California, recalling Beige Davis, and in Michigan, not-recalling Governor Snyder. Rest assured, someone is working on sending Recall to the ash-heap of history to sit next to Free Speech.
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