Author Archives: Tin Man

Tenterhooks

Posted on by

Howard Bashman of How Appealing referred to tenterhooks, just like I did last night. Weird…

I still hope nobody retires (even though Lawrence would have turned out the same way even without O’Connor). I don’t think anyone will retire right now; as I’ve read somewhere, “Those who know aren’t talking, and those who are talking don’t know.” The only ones stirring up the rumors of a retirement are politicians who are worried, and journalists who are looking for a good story. Bush is coasting to re-election right now and doesn’t need any controversy stirred up. And all the justices seem to be happy on the Court. Most importantly, there’s a major campaign finance case scheduled for hearings in September, which is unusually early, and it’s doubtful a replacement would be confirmed by then. But we’ll see.

Thomas’s dissent

Posted on by

I have to say, out of all four opinions, I was most surprised by Thomas’s dissent:

“I write separately to note that the law before the Court today ‘is … uncommonly silly.’ Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 527 (1965) (Stewart, J., dissenting). [Griswold struck down a law that criminalized the use of contraceptive devices.] If I were a member of the Texas Legislature, I would vote to repeal it. Punishing someone for expressing his sexual preference through noncommercial consensual conduct with another adult does not appear to be a worthy way to expend valuable law enforcement resources.”

Nevertheless, Thomas still thinks the law is constitutional, because the Constitution doesn’t explicitly guarantee privacy. I can sort of respect that. At least he’s not as dickish as Scalia is in his dissent.

More on Scalia later.

Much more.

Lambda

Posted on by

Lambda calls the Lawrence decision “the most significant ruling ever for lesbian and gay Americans’ civil rights.”

(Check out Lambda’s cool splash page today.)

“Today, the Supreme Court corrected one of its gravest mistakes. This ruling removes the terrible shadow cast over the gay community by the Supreme Court’s destructive and misguided decision 17 years ago.”

Bowers v. Hardwick is in the dustbin of history.
—–