From Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/26/supreme-court-proposition-8_n_2950615.html
WASHINGTON — Justice Anthony Kennedy on Tuesday called the prospect of same-sex marriage “uncharted waters” during oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court on Proposition 8, California’s gay marriage ban.
“And you can play with that metaphor,” Kennedy said, continuing that in that consideration, “There’s a wonderful destination” or “a cliff.”
Prop 8 was the California ballot referendum passed in November 2008 that banned same-sex marriage, reversing by popular vote the state Supreme Court’s decision just months earlier to recognize marriage equality.
Kennedy seemed genuinely interested in that “wonderful destination” and mortified by the prospect that there still might be a cliff. He acknowledged that while the social science on gay marriage is relatively new, there is an “immediate” legal harm to those same-sex couples who cannot be married. He said the voice of thousands of children of same-sex couples is an important aspect of the case.
“They want their parents to have full recognition and legal status,” Kennedy told Charles J. Cooper, who is representing supporters of Prop 8’s ban on gay marriage. “The voice of those children is considerable in this case, don’t you think?”
Kennedy also expressed deep doubts that Prop 8, and same-sex marriage bans in general, present “no harm of denigration” against gays and lesbians.
Before the justices even reached the merits of the constitutional case for same-sex marriage, Chief Justice John Roberts instructed both advocates to argue whether the parties defending Prop 8 had legal standing.
Continue reading at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/26/supreme-court-proposition-8_n_2950615.html
