Biden’s gay marriage win may lead Democrats to retool Supreme Court attacks – msnNOW
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President Joe Biden signing a bill into law that Democrats say safeguards gay and interracial marriages from the Supreme Court has been welcomed by its supporters.
But the Respect for Marriage Act addresses an issue at the center of the political attacks Democrats aimed at the Supreme Court and Republicans before last month’s midterm elections, undermining their ability to use the same strategy during the 2024 cycle.
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White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, herself the first openly gay black woman to brief from the podium, underscored Tuesday’s bill signing ceremony as a bipartisan celebration, featuring musical guests who will perform before “thousands of people” on the South Lawn, including “lawmakers, as well as advocates and plaintiffs in marriage equality cases across the country.”
“This is a reminder, if I may add, how when we do reach across the aisle, there are things that we can get done, historic pieces of legislation that we can get done, and we have seen that under the president,” Jean-Pierre told reporters.
Yet Jean-Pierre amplifying bipartisan support for the Respect for Marriage Act contradicts her and her Democratic colleagues’ rhetoric before the midterm contests. Biden described Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as “extreme in the extreme” during a fundraiser after Thomas’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization concurring opinion encouraged legal challenges to substantive due process precedents akin to Roe v. Wade, such as in decisions regarding contraceptive access, gay marriage, and same-sex relationships.
And the tactic worked, in part, considering Democrats retained their control of the Senate and held Republicans to the smallest congressional gains under a Democratic president in 40 years.
But for Costas Panagopoulos, Northeastern University’s political science chairman, the Respect for Marriage Act’s passage actually contributes to the Democrats’ portrayal of the Supreme Court as an adversary with its 6-3 conservative majority through Republican appointments.
“If anything, passage of the act reinforces Democrats’ message and strengthens the party’s claims about why voters should support Democrats, in part to counterbalance potential overreach by the court,” the American Politics Research editor told the Washington Examiner.
Despite Republican concerns, the Respect for Marriage Act will curtail religious freedoms, Rutgers University history, journalism, and media studies professor David Greenberg agreed with Panagopoulos, contending the bill is simultaneously “a victory for strict constructionists,” who believe “it’s the job of Congress, not the Supreme Court, to set forth rights like gay marriage.”
“Those who believe the courts have gone too far in recognizing these rights still have a case for voting Republican — whether it’s to appoint conservative judges or to legislatively limit some of these rights,” Greenberg said.
“As an issue that mobilizes people, gay marriage has simply never been as significant as abortion rights,” the Republic of Spin author added. “The political fights over abortion laws are probably going to continue for a long time to come, and it will be much, much harder to get Republicans to support a national law codifying Roe.”
The Supreme Court’s “veneer” of judicial independence was “shattered” when the court decided Dobbs, which overturned Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, ruling “along political lines rather than long-established legal precedent,” according to lawyer and Democratic political analyst Paul Henderson. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito‘s majority opinion, however, asserts that the Constitution does not explicitly mention abortion access and the substantive right is not “deeply rooted” in the country’s history.
“President Biden’s record number of appointments to district and circuit courts, though impressive, is not a viable solution to fixing a broken Supreme Court,” Henderson said of Biden’s gender and racially diverse nominees. “Remember, these judges are bound by the decisions of the ones who sit at 1 1st St. NE.”
Henderson, chief of administration and a prosecutor for Vice President Kamala Harris when she was San Francisco’s district attorney, is adamant “drastic measures” are necessary to mitigate how the Supreme Court “can no longer be trusted to be an impartial interpreter of the laws passed by our Congress.”
“Expansion is needed to break the conservative politically motivated stranglehold,” Henderson continued. “This is possible through congressional legislation, as the Constitution itself does not define the size of the Supreme Court.”
Biden celebrated Congress passing the Respect for Marriage Act last week as a “critical step” to ensure the public has the right to marry the person they love. He is additionally expected to renew calls for Congress to clear the Equality Act, too.
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“After the uncertainty caused by the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, Congress has restored a measure of security to millions of marriages and families,” Biden wrote at the time. “They have also provided hope and dignity to millions of young people across this country who can grow up knowing that their government will recognize and respect the families they build.”
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Tags: White House, Joe Biden, Supreme Court, 2024 Elections, Marriage
Original Author: Naomi Lim
Original Location: Biden’s gay marriage win may lead Democrats to retool Supreme Court attacks