Sides Of History

A new landmark in civil rights. Unlike such decisions as this, and this, the vote fortunately took place while Anthony Kennedy was in a sane phase.

Kennedy couched his opinion in rhetoric about marriage as "the keystone of our social order." But more importantly, he found "The right to marry is a fundamental right inherent in the liberty of the person, and under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment..."

It's an historic extension of Loving v. Virginia, also decided on Fourteenth Amendment grounds.

Marriage rights was an issue that Mildred Loving certainly understood, and she endorsed equality before her passing in 2008. Her statement was issued on the fortieth anniversary of her own landmark case, which had been a victory over legal oppression long justified as being ordained by God.

From the NYT editorial—

The humane grandeur of the majority's opinion stands out all the more starkly in contrast to the bitter, mocking small-mindedness of the dissents, one each by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito Jr. and Antonin Scalia.

Faced with a simple statement of human equality, the dissenters groped and scratched for a way to reject it.

Which leads to the other side of celebration; Steve M. asks, "What happens when crazy apocalyptics get their apocalypse?"

I know I should just relax and savor the Supreme Court ruling making same-sex marriage legal nationwide. But it's been a devastating week for angry American reactionaries who think civilization as we know it is going to hell in a handbasket -- yesterday's Obamacare ruling, the sudden rethinking of Confederate symbols, and, let's not forget, gruesome terrorist attacks in France, Tunisia, and Kuwait. If you're an American right-winger, all of this is connected. It's a sign that we've mocked God and fallen out of his favor. It's a sign that satanic forces are winning.

I wouldn't give a crap what these people think except for the fact that they vote, they dominate many American states, and they own guns.
...

When I think of the roadblocks to legal abortion devised by the right since Roe v. Wade, what astonishes me is the sheer creativity. Say what you will about conservatives, they have a genius for concocting ways around laws they don't like. I can't believe they won't find ways around this one.

Right-wingers are really, really mad right now, in both senses of the word. I get nervous when they're this mad.