A Tiny Victory from a Radical Court

Before the Supreme Court gets entirely too much credit for its ruling today, please consider that it applies to 11 states, the ones that have legalized marriage between two people, regardless of gender. The other states have laws against gay marriage and most of those are not likely to change those laws. Virginia is one of them and our Attorney General (and candidate for governor) wants to outlaw oral sex, for god's sake.

We have a long way to go and at least one right-wing nutcase Supreme Court Justice to replace on this uber-political court before we start getting realistic judgements from these people, five of whom believe a corporation is a person and that they had the right to declare George Bush president. They have degraded the constitution in the past decade-plus of crazy-assed rulings and will continue doing so until the majority is flipped.

Problem is that Barack Obama has but three years left to replace at least one of those on the right and it looks like the only person who will retire during that time is Ruth Ginsburg. The Senate will be loathe to approve anybody as liberal as she in her place. If the vacancy comes in the last 18 months of the Obama presidency, my guess is the appointment will not be approved at all until a new president is sitting.

This is a small victory. A very, very small victory in a sea of utter defeat from this court.

(Graphic: nvrdc.wordpress.com)