A military order, however unconstitutional, is not apt to last longer than the military emergency. Even during that period, a succeeding commander may revoke it all. But once a judicial opinion rationalizes such an order to show that it conforms to the Constitution, or rather rationalizes the Constitution to show that the Constitution sanctions such an order, the Court for all time has validated the principle of racial discrimination in criminal procedure and of transplanting American citizens. The principle then lies about like a loaded weapon, ready for the hand of any authority that can bring forward a plausible claim of an urgent need. Every repetition imbeds that principle more deeply in our law and thinking and expands it to new purposes.
Do you have a (relatively active) Wikipedia account? There’s a Wikipedia Library via which you can request access (tho perhaps not to everything you seek).
Congress passes a law, SCOTUS upholds it, two Presidents from different parties say “meh…no.” This could actually be the start of a Constitutional crisis.
Personally, I think the law is stupid and I think SCOTUS is wrong, but the executive branch ignoring the other two branches is not a good sign for the future of our democracy.
Ah, the Andrew Jackson philosophy on executive power. (After a SCOTUS decision that he didn’t agree with he was widely reported, perhaps apocryphally, as saying “John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it.”)
I know. I saw that. So what. It doesn’t do anything. It’s so stupid. When some state stops issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples, then I will get worried. This is just right wing virtue signaling.
Please note: I am not saying Obergefell isn’t in danger. It is. I am just saying that this resolution doesn’t threaten Obergefell at all. And if the Idaho legislature were serious about overturning Obergefell, there are things they could do to trigger that lawsuit. They could pass a new law banning same sex marriages, including a provision prohibiting county clerks from issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples, regardless of Obergefell. This is the model Mississippi followed to trigger the lawsuit that overturned Roe v. Wade. Idaho could do that. That they didn’t is very telling. They’re more interested in waving a Conservative Christian flag, as it were, than in actually doing anything to overturn Obergefell.
