A Different Take On Obergefell

I just finished reading my partner Aaron Weems' analysis on last week's ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that gay marriage is an institution meriting the respect of all fifty American states and not merely those which had endorsed the concept through referendum, legislative action or judicial fiat.

I use the word "fiat" with some measure because this was the basis for the dissenting opinions of Justices Scalia, Roberts, Thomas and Alito.  Unfortunately, the focus in the press has been on some of the intemperate language used in the dissenting opinions to take on the majority for declaring itself a kind of super legislature empowered to decide what society should approve and what it should not.  I write to say I find merit in this view and thought it best summarized in Justice Roberts' comment that while advocates of gay marriage had reason to celebrate the ruling, defenders of the right of the people to speak through majority rule are shortchanged whenever the Courts