Today must suck for Antonin Scalia. It's been a bad week for him (poor Maureen, she has to put up with this at home!) And, true to form, Justice Scalia's dissents in the last 2 cases decided by the court have raised the level of sheer glee I feel when I read them knowing how these losses drive him cray-cray!
:)
Conditioned as we are as children, we're taught that gloating in victory shows poor form and that the winners who mock their vanquished opponents show poor character which diminishes the victory. Well -- haha -- those of you who know me know I already suffer from a character deficiency, so I'm gonna rub his fat, red face in the dirt as I round third and head for home, spikes up and sharpened.
"I join THE CHIEF JUSTICE’s opinion in full. I write separately to call attention to this Court’s threat to American democracy..."
"The substance of today’s decree is not of immense personal importance to me,"
Liar, liar, pants on fire. Ok, when the dissent begins with a bold-faced lie, you know it's going to be a doozie! Since Scalia never plans on marrying a person of the same sex, and therefor has no immense personal feelings one way or the other regarding the substance of today's decree, he'll take the time to write his own opinion rather than simply signing on to Roberts' opinion and let it end there. Gotcha, Tony.
"It is of overwhelming importance, however, who it is that rules me. Today’s decree says that my Ruler, and the Ruler of 320 million Americans coast-to-coast, is a majority of the nine lawyers on the Supreme Court. Until the courts put a stop to it, public debate over same-sex marriage displayed American democracy at its best."
Yes, the public debate which was led by such masters of logic and eloquence as Rick -- homosexuality is like kleptomania and gay marriage will open the door to inter-species marriage -- Santorum. A high water mark in American Public Debate. Please cue Lee Greenwood's "Proud to be an American" as we revisit democratic public debate at its best.
"But the Court ends this debate, in an opinion lacking even a thin veneer of law."
Thank God! We were getting tired.
"Buried beneath the mummeries and straining-to-be-memorable passages of the opinion is a candid and startling assertion: No matter what it was the People ratified, the Fourteenth Amendment protects those rights that the Judiciary, in its 'reasoned judgment,' thinks the Fourteenth Amendment ought to protect."
To quote Justice Anthony Kennedy's MAJORITY opinion:
They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.
Well, if Kennedy was straining to be memorable with that
mummery, he succeeded. More mummeries, please!
From the majority opinion:
"The nature of marriage is that, through its enduring bond, two persons together can find other freedoms, such as expression, intimacy, and spirituality"
,
Scalia's DELICIOUS incredulity:
"Really? Who ever thought that intimacy and spirituality [whatever that means] were freedoms? And if intimacy is, one would think Freedom of Intimacy is abridged rather than expanded by marriage. Ask the nearest hippie."
Not only will we ask the nearest hippie, Justice Scalia, we'll invite them to our weddings -- hippies always have the best shit.