This
Month in
History
SUPREME DECISION Artist’s rendition of attorney Charles Cooper arguing his
case before Supreme Court justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Samuel Alito and Elena Kagan.
50 YEARS AGO 1963
25 YEARS AGO
Dr. No, the first James Bond film starring Sean Connery, premieres.
Wade: Many contentious social issues are often best left to voters to hammer out on a state-by-state basis. Or as Conway put it, “To tell mil-
lions of Americans that their deeply held moral convictions make them bigots is probably something else the Supreme Court doesn’t want to do.” Richard Land, former president
of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, welcomed the court’s restraint in the face of mounting pres- sure from the left. “They’ve learned from Roe v.
Wade,” he said. “Even Justice Gins- burg, who’s the most liberal justice in the history of the Supreme Court, said that Roe v. Wade was a bad decision because it tried to take the abortion issue out of the democratic process, and made the abortion issue much more contentious than it would have been otherwise.” Quoting Ginsburg may seem iron-
are generally encouraged that the high court appears to have digested the larger historical lesson from Roe v.
ic. After all, she’s considered one of the most reliable liberal votes on the bench. But during an appearance last year at Columbia Law School, she
1988
Surgeon General C. Everett Koop: nicotine as addicting as heroin.
openly questioned the wisdom of Roe v. Wade. “It’s not that the judgment was wrong,” she said. “But it moved too far, too fast.” If the Supreme Court does rule that
states should decide what constitutes marriage, Land says conservatives will redouble their eff orts on the state and local level. Currently, 30 states have banned
same-sex marriage in their state Con- stitutions. Ten others bar it under ordinary state law. Gay marriage has been declared legal in just nine states and the District of Columbia. “We will continue to try to defend traditional marriage in the states where it is the only option, and we will try to over- turn same-sex marriage in the states that have passed it,” said Land. Despite polls that show public opin-
ion is shifting, conservatives are confi - dent that they can win in the court of public opinion. Heritage Policy Ana- lyst Andrew Walker said, “Millions of Americans have spoken out on this issue, and we don’t want their voices being overridden by the court.”
Defense of Marriage Act Also Faces Scrutiny P
roposition 8 isn’t the only big case on gay marriage the public is awaiting Supreme Court scrutiny. The Defense
of Marriage Act, which prohibits any federal recognition of the validity of same-sex marriage, is also up for review. The DOMA case is titled United States v. Windsor. It involves 83-year-old Edith Windsor of New York, whose same-sex partner of 44 years passed away in 2009. The IRS socked Windsor with a
$363,000 federal estate-tax bill that otherwise would have been zero had the federal government recognized her Canadian marriage. Four years after she was married in Canada, New York state legalized gay marriage. She sued,
and the lower courts ruled she had the same right to federal benefits as anyone else whose spouse had passed away. Pro-family advocates face an uphill battle on DOMA. During the March hearing, several justices questioned the constitutional validity of withholding federal benefits to same-sex couples once states have recognized their unions as valid. Justice Anthony Kennedy, generally considered the swing vote on the court, questioned “whether or not the federal government under our federalism scheme has the authority to regulate marriage.”
IN COURT Edith Windsor, inset, is fighting the Defense of Marriage Act.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the DOMA case in June. — D.P.
MAY 2013 | NEWSMAX 15
CONNERY/©UNITED ARTISTS/ENTERTAINMENT PICTURES/ZUMAPRESS / KOOP, WINDSOR/AP IMAGES DOMA/MARK WILSON/GETTY IMAGES
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