(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Supreme Court analyst Joan Biskupic’s upcoming book, Nine Black Robes: Inside the Supreme Court’s Drive to the Right and Its Historic Consequences, will take a deep dive into the recent history of our country’s highest court.
According to CNN, the book argues that Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy colluded to influence the outcome of several cases concerning gay marriage, despite their initial hesitations about the 2015 ruling.
A few years following the ruling, however, Roberts and Kennedy allegedly organized a deal, lumping the latter in with LGBT activists by allowing two lesbians from being named on their adopted child’s birth certificate in Obergefell v. Hodges.
Kennedy, for his part, voted for the court to hear the appeal of Colorado’s Masterpiece Cakeshop case, after owner Jack Phillips refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple.
Public action for both cases was announced on the same day.
Since the 2017 cases, Roe v Wade has been overturned and Justice Clarence Thomas requested that his cohorts on the bench reconsider past decisions regarding the legitimization gay marriage.
Obergefell v. Hodges may yet be revisited, and the results may change as only two of the five justices in the Obergefell majority, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, still serve on the court.
Justice Samuel Alito attempted to assuage people’s fears that the overturning of Roe would effect rulings on homosexual unions in his opinion on the abortion overturn.
“(W)e have stated unequivocally that ‘nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion,’” the opinion explained. “We have also explained why that is so: rights regarding contraception and same-sex relationships are inherently different from the right to abortion because the latter (as we have stressed) uniquely involves what Roe and Casey termed ‘potential life.’”
The book argues that Roberts tried to build bridges and make compromises where necessary throughout the Trump administration, attempting to avoid polarization across all branches of the government.
