Justice Ruth Ginsburg Officiates At "Gay Wedding"

FOXNews.com:

Two months after the Supreme Court's landmark ruling to expand federal recognition of same-sex marriages, striking down part of an anti-gay marriage law,  Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg officiated at a same-sex wedding.

The officiating is believed to be a first for a member of the nation's highest court. 

Ginsburg officiated Saturday at the marriage of Kennedy Center President Michael Kaiser and John Roberts, a government economist.

"Michael Kaiser is a friend and someone I much admire," Ginsburg said in a written statement Friday. "That is why I am officiating at his wedding."

The private ceremony took place at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a national memorial to President John F. Kennedy. The 80-year-old Ginsburg, an opera lover, is a frequent guest at the center.

Same-sex marriage is legal in the District of Columbia and 13 states.

"I think it will be one more statement that people who love each other and want to live together should be able to enjoy the blessings and the strife in the marriage relationship," Ginsburg told The Washington Post in an interview.

"It won't be long before there will be another" performed by a justice. She has another ceremony planned for September.

Kaiser told The Associated Press that he asked Ginsburg to officiate because she is a longtime friend.

"It's very meaningful mostly to have a friend officiate, and then for someone of her stature, it's a very big honor," Kaiser said. "I think that everything that's going on that makes same-sex marriage possible and visible helps to encourage others and to make the issue seem less of an issue, to make it just more part of life."

Justices generally avoid taking stands on political issues. 

While hearing arguments in the case in March, Ginsburg argued for treating marriages equally. The rights associated with marriage are pervasive, she said, and the law had created two classes of marriage, full and "skim-milk marriage."

Before the court heard arguments on the Defense of Marriage Act, Ginsburg told The New Yorker magazine in March that she had not performed a same-sex marriage and had not been asked. Justices do officiate at other weddings, though.

"I don't think anybody's asking us, because of these cases," she told the magazine. "No one in the gay-rights movement wants to risk having any member of the court be criticized or asked to recuse. So I think that's the reason no one has asked me."

Asked whether she would perform such a wedding in the future, she said: "Why not?"

Listen, conservatives have long known that Justice Ginsburg is a far-Left minion--she was a member of the ACLU for chrissakes. But this decision, to officiate a "gay wedding", wasn't just something Ginsburg was "doing for a friend", but an in-your-face diss towards Christians, social conservatives and anyone else who believes in and stands up for traditional marriage. Of course, she should now have to recuse herself from any future case that comes before SCOTUS involving same-sex wedding (or gays in general), but she won't. Because Justice Ginsburg doesn't care what you think and for all the disrespect Justices' Thomas and Scalia get for being 'too conservative' from the far-Left media, the hypocrites in the press will find a way to protect one of their favorite daughters.

RELATED: Time for Justice Ginsburg to Step Aside to Save Her Legacy

Justice Sonia Sotomayor Makes Her Debut Today

CSMonitor.com:

Transition is the word that perhaps best describes the US Supreme Court's 2009-10 term set to begin Monday.

The coming year offers an opportunity for court watchers to more clearly define the character of the emerging Roberts Court during Chief Justice John Roberts's fifth term on the bench. And it presents a chance far superior to the wishy-washy Senate confirmation hearings to finally learn something of the real Sonia Sotomayor, the high court's newest justice.

Will she be a liberal stalwart or a sometimes ally to the conservatives? If so, in which cases?

The term already includes potential blockbuster cases examining the applicability of Second Amendment gun rights to state and local governments, campaign-finance regulations, life sentences for juveniles, and whether Congress violated the separation of powers when it created an independent accounting oversight board.

The court's options will reveal more than just legal winners and losers. How these disputes are analyzed and decided by the justices will offer legal scholars important clues about the evolving dynamics within the nation's highest court.

In addition to the arrival of a new justice, Justice John Paul Stevens's decision to hire only one law clerk (instead of the usual four) for the 2010-11 term has sparked speculation that he intends to leave the court in June.

Among key trends to watch will be whether Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito decide to put an unabashedly conservative stamp on the high court by joining their conservative colleagues to boldly overturn liberal legal precedents despite earlier pledges of a preference for judicial minimalism.

Personally, I think that Sotomayor will play it down the line, 50/50, which will keep folks guessing while not leaning any particular way. Good chance that Obama will get at least more chances to make appointments to SCOTUS, what with Stevens likely retiring soon and Ginsburg being sick of late. But the key is Anthony Kennedy, he's the swing vote. If Barry gets to replace Kennedy, the court could then take on a dramatic shift that liberals would be drooling over.

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Ruth Ginsburg Stepping Down?

TheBostonChannel.com:

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 75, visited students at the New England School of Law Friday, telling them there could be an opening on the Supreme Court soon, saying the justices only take pictures together when a new justice joins the court.

"We haven't had any of those for some time, but surely we will soon," Ginsburg said.

The Supreme Court justice spoke at the school's annual "Law Day," and her talk covered a range of topics, from a tutorial on the landmark 1967 Loving v. Virginia decision on the legality of interracial marriage to the status of gender in the U.S.

Ginsburg told the audience of about 150 students that she's lived long enough to see such cases make big changes in the nation, changes that have allowed for the inclusion of two women on the Supreme Court and an African-American president who is a product of an interracial marriage."Considering how far we have come, there is good cause for optimism about our country's future," Ginsburg said.

If Ginsburg does step down there's no doubt Obama will replace her with a woman. And wouldn't it be something if that woman was Janice Rogers Brown? I know it's a hell of a longshot when you consider that Obama's a liberal, but Justice Brown is more than qualified and despite what liberals have said about her, she's actually shown to have both libertarian and socialist leanings. If there's an opening on SCOTUS soon, Janice Rogers Brown should be heavily considered for a spot.