Souter: A Last Lecture on Gay Marriage?

Contents:

• PAT ROBERTSON WANTS YOU TO KNOW THAT FORMER SUPREME COURT JTICE DAVID SOUTER IS GAY
• SOUTER: A LAST LECTURE ON GAY MARRIAGE?
• BEHD THE SCEN 2000 WHEN SUPREME COURT LIBERALS THOUGHT NAZI AND DRED STT REFERENC GAY RIGHTS DISSENT WERE DISTRACTG
• SEX AND THE SUPREM – KAGAN IS SIXTH “MAYBE GAY” NOMEE
• SOUTER LEAV GAY RIGHTS LEGACY ON SUPREME COURT
• THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985
• BEHD THE SCEN 2000 WHEN SUPREME COURT LIBERALS THOUGHT NAZI AND DRED STT REFERENC GAY RIGHTS DISSENT WERE DISTRACTG

PAT ROBERTSON WANTS YOU TO KNOW THAT FORMER SUPREME COURT JTICE DAVID SOUTER IS GAY

This morng, Josh Gerste of Poli reported that two of the top ndidat for the SCOTUS seat, Stanford Law School’s Pamela Karlan and Kathleen Sullivan, are gay. You’d thk this would have cleared the air for the first ee and unfettered discsn of an openly gay jtice. On hearg the news about Karlan, Tony Perks of the Fay Rearch Council said he doubts Print Obama will nomate a gay person to the Supreme Court, bee of the possibily of a polil battle: “That would enter a whole new element of the bate that I don’t thk he’s ready for, ” Perks said.

Thk of all the sgle, childls women posns of promence who have been “mored to be gay. The very much married Hillary Clton is practilly the only one who n proudly, sually say that she march Gay Pri paras, although mors that she was a lbian have dogged her, too, for s. Sometim the for gay gets sloppy and transparent.

SOUTER: A LAST LECTURE ON GAY MARRIAGE?

” Although she has taken pas to wele nservativ onto mp, Kagan is targeted by the right for beg “gay iendly” bee she took sis a Supreme Court se which several law schools objected to the ary’s policy on gay servicemen and servicewomen.

Ja Napolano, secretary of the Department of Homeland Secury and another short-lister, has many tim answered qutns om Rh Limbgh and reporters about whether she is gay.

BEHD THE SCEN 2000 WHEN SUPREME COURT LIBERALS THOUGHT NAZI AND DRED STT REFERENC GAY RIGHTS DISSENT WERE DISTRACTG

That we n’t speak openly about whether some of the women who have earned nsiratn for the Supreme Court are gay or not, and whether even matters, is, of urse, madng. Maybe Tony Perks is right, and Obama is “not ready” to nomate a gay person. The first gay print?

Wh Print Donald Tmp’s next appotment—one that will all but surely w nfirmatn—the new majory will feature hostily to labor and nsumers, iendls to rporate power, skepticism about protectg and expandg the anchise, and a dub (at bt) acceptance of the unenumerated privacy right that unrlie the abortn and gay rights cisns. Is this the face of a homosexual former Supreme Court Jtice? All this talk about whether the new Supreme Court nomee is gay has had the si effect of sparkg talk about how a recently retired Supreme Court jtice was actually gay all along.

SEX AND THE SUPREM – KAGAN IS SIXTH “MAYBE GAY” NOMEE

A fun game to play: every time a piece go up addrsg the subject of Is she gay, Do matter eher way, Should she have to answer the qutn, is to unt how many paragraphs before the wrer brgs up Souter as a prr example of somebody whose orientatn was an open qutn, or how many ments before some wag stat his orientatn as a fact. Speakg on the nservative Christian program The 700 Club, televangelist Pat Robertson implied that retired Supreme Court Jtice David Souter is gay, although he wasn’t sure if Souter is still alive.

SOUTER LEAV GAY RIGHTS LEGACY ON SUPREME COURT

There were mors at the time of his nfirmatn that he was gay.

For example, the Orlando Sentel 1990 asked why he never married, raisg the possibily of him beg gay.

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

Is he anti-social, homosexual, misogynistic, immature or jt pla dweeby? It has long been mored that Souter is gay.

As part of the procs of g up wh an answer, I wound up studyg an opn of Jtice Souter’s om a few days ago that strikgly addrs not only this issue but substantive liberty and may clu his partially disguised thoughts on gay marriage ligatn as well. It was not a mere cince that when the urt stuck down homosexual sodomy laws Lawrence v. It is still hard to avoid the ncln that one issue his md was gay marriage.

6, 1990, ver story on Souter, Time magaze reported on “speculatn that Souter is homosexual. ” The Washgton Post a Style sectn profile noted that there was “a flurry of speculatn that the Supreme Court might be gettg s first gay jtice.

BEHD THE SCEN 2000 WHEN SUPREME COURT LIBERALS THOUGHT NAZI AND DRED STT REFERENC GAY RIGHTS DISSENT WERE DISTRACTG

The prted mors were irrponsible and reflected a grotque tolerance — not jt for homosexualy but toward anyone who might choose to live alone and differently.

Before the formal nfirmatn heargs were to beg September, Souter and Rudman got word that a New York gay newspaper was planng an “outg” of Souter’s alleged secret gay night, Souter and Rudman went to the senator’s apartment at the Harbour Square Washgton, overlookg the Potomac River. The gay newspaper never published an article, and nothg ncrete ever surfaced about his alleged sexual preference, but what if had? Is a rock Lda GreenhoeContributg Op-Ed WrerThe Moment at HandOn gay marriage, Judge Richard Posner’s journey om “no” to “maybe but not yet” to “y and now” suggts he is a stand- for many of Lda Greenhoe.

(It has long been mored that Souter is gay. And to some extent they have: In the last eight years the Roberts urt rhaped Obamare even if didn’t kill , limed some of the Obama admistratn’s power grabs and advanced certa nservative goals left over om the Reagan years (on mpaign fance and gun rights, notably) on issu of burng ncern to the Republin Party’s base — abortn above all, and then the gay-rights revolutn and relig liberty — the urt fed by Reagan and the Bh has often been an enemy, not an ally, eher nsolidatg social-liberal gas or advancg liberal even further. Wa would have been mostly overturned the 1990s, returng much of abortn law to the stat, and that the gay rights movement would have subsequently advanced through referendums and legislatn rather than a sweepg nstutnalizatn of cultural, turn, would have dramatilly lowered the stak of judicial polics for many Republin voters, makg an untimely event like Slia’s ath ls of a crisis moment, a rponse like the Garland pocket veto ls of a necsy and the ndidacy of Donald Tmp somethg more easily, I strongly spect that a world whout the Souter own goal — a world where the Supreme Court had sid wh cultural nservativ to the extent one would have expected given the number of recent Republin appote — a nomee like Merrick Garland uld still have been nfirmed wh Republin vot, and the filibter uld still persist, rerved for the unqualified, rpt and genuely extreme.