The President and the Supreme Court

This has been a great week for President Barack H. Obama.  The SCOTUS upheld the housing anti-discrimination law, then supported the Affordable Care Act by allowing the subsidies regardless of whether it is a state or federal exchange and finally affirmed the right for the LBGT community in all states to marry.  Mr. Chief Justice Roberts sided with the majority in the ACA case making the ruling 6-3.  Mr. Justice Kennedy wrote the 5-4 decision for marriage equality.  In it he eloquently said,

 “No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion sacrifice, and family.  In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were.  As some fo the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death.  It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage.  Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves.  Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions.  They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law.  The Constitution grants them that right.  The judgement of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is reversed.”

The response to the decision was remarkable.  The White House issued a photo of the building with rainbow colors.  Many friends modified their picture on Facebook to do the same.  Yet Mr. Justice Scalia had a hissy fit in his dissent and Mr. Justice Thomas made little sense in his.  The Republican candidates for President called for the elimination of SCOTUS totally (a real Constitutional scholar and devotee), nullification (another legal scholar) and two said they would burn themselves in protest along with some minister who promised to do the same.  Only Christie said that this is now the law of the land and should be accepted and followed although we may be unhappy with the decision!  The rest are true leaders in the making!  Edmund Burke an important member of the British Parliament once said, “Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.”  For me that applies to leaders as well and we have a dearth of leaders in the USA today.  We primarily have panderers to local public opinion.