US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy made an appearance at Harvard Law School on Thursday, October 22. And, in answering a student's question about the authority of public officials to refuse to enforce SCOTUS rulings, he pretty stated that it would be far more honorable for one to resign if their conscience prevented him/her from enforcing the law. Follow me below the fold for the discussion and the video.
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From the
Advocate:
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, the author of June’s landmark marriage equality decision, has suggested that public officials who object to that or other legal mandates should resign.
Referring to laws governing both marriage and abortion, the young man asked Kennedy, “Would you say that there are any state or federal officials with authority to act according to her own judgment of the truth of new insights or of the soundness of the court’s constitutional interpretation, or would it be illegal for any federal official or state official to enforce or to act according to the old understanding of life and the Constitution that she still judges to be the truth of the matter?”
The justice responded by pointing out that only three judges resigned during Germany’s Third Reich — the government of Adolf Hitler — and said, “Great respect, it seems to me, has to be given to people who resign rather than do something they view as morally wrong, in order to make a point. However, the rule of law is that, as a public official, in performing your legal duties, you are bound to enforce the law.”
“This requires considerable introspection,” he continued, “and it’s a fair question that officials can and should ask themselves. But certainly, in an offhand comment, it would be difficult for me to say that people are free to ignore a decision by the Supreme Court.”
There is video of Justice Kennedy's visit to Harvard Law School, and it is below. The part about his answer regarding public officials and enforcing SCOTUS rulings is around the fifty-one minute mark.
And, in one of the most recent polls, most Americans agree with Justice Kennedy. And, this is from one of the more conservative polling outfits. From JMG:
Most Americans — 56 percent — now think government officials who issue marriage licenses should be required to issue them to gay and lesbian couples even if they have religious objections to do so, according to the new poll. Just 41 percent say there should be a religious exemption to that requirement. That’s a shift since an earlier AP-GfK poll conducted in July. Then, Americans were about evenly split, with 49 percent saying officials with religious objections should be exempt from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples and 47 percent saying they should be required to issue them.
That shift was especially stark among Republicans. A majority of them —58 percent — still favor religious exemptions for officials issuing marriage licenses, but that’s down 14 points since 72 percent said so in July.
The latest AP-GfK Poll was conducted from October 15-19 among a sample of 1,027 adults, with a margin of sampling error of +/- 3.3 percentage points.
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From Denise Oliver Velez:
This is a very thoughtful and in-depth comment from kmoorh, in my diary today.
From Tara the Antisocial Social Worker:
There were a lot of amazing comments today in Denise Oliver Velez's diary "Just 'being' black is a crime." In discussing the story of the cop who body-slammed a girl in school, there have been various attempts in the media to blame the victim, or ask "Where were the parents?" Mikebonehead quotes Matt Gubser giving the perfect response.
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