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How the Supreme Court could wind up scrapping high-profile precedents in coming months
CNN ^ | 2025-08-17 | John Fritze

Posted on 08/17/2025 4:31:31 PM PDT by Salman

The Supreme Court’s landmark opinion on same-sex marriage isn’t the only high-profile precedent the justices will have an opportunity to tinker with – or entirely scrap – when the court reconvenes this fall.

...

Even before Trump was reelected, the Supreme Court’s conservatives had put a target on a Roosevelt-era precedent that protects the leaders of independent agencies from being fired by the president for political reasons. The first few months of Trump’s second term have only expedited its demise.

...

A recent Supreme Court appeal from Kim Davis, a former county clerk from Kentucky who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, has raised concerns from some about the court overturning its decade-old Obergefell decision. Davis is appealing a $100,000 jury verdict – plus $260,000 for attorneys’ fees – awarded over her move to defy the Supreme Court’s decision and decline to issue the licenses.

Davis has framed her appeal in religious terms, a strategy that often wins on the conservative court. She described Obergefell as a “mistake” that “must be corrected.”

...

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: homosexualagenda; prolife; scotus
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CNN views with alarm what I call winning.

Lots of other stuff on the list beside what I excerpted. Well worth reading.

1 posted on 08/17/2025 4:31:31 PM PDT by Salman
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To: Salman

It neo-pagans who push to define two people of the same sex, living together, as a “marriage”.

It is a distinctly “modern” conception of marriage, with no history behind it.


2 posted on 08/17/2025 4:43:54 PM PDT by marktwain
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To: Salman

I don’t see them rolling back gay marriage and I don’t think they should. (Wait for it...)

1. Why should not gay people have the opportunity to be as miserable as everyone else? and:
2. Forcing gay marriage licenses on unwilling red states under Full Faith And Credit plus Equal Protection then maintaining that means that the blue states have no grounds to complain when being forced to honor red states carry permits and perhaps even constitutional carry is forced upon them - among many other things, like NFA ownership. It’s an opportunity that we should be using.


3 posted on 08/17/2025 4:47:49 PM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: Spktyr

Bad logic, one is literally in the constitution, the other is not.


4 posted on 08/17/2025 4:49:53 PM PDT by Skwor
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To: Salman

While the whole gay marriage thing was going on, it was obvious to anyone who knew the proper role of the federal government, that marriage was a states issue and the federal court had no business taking the case.


5 posted on 08/17/2025 4:50:38 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Time to dump out the Treasury drawer and throw out all the junk that is wasting our money.)
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To: Salman

While the whole gay marriage thing was going on, it was obvious to anyone who knew the proper role of the federal government, that marriage was the states 10th Amendment issue and the federal court had no business taking the case.


6 posted on 08/17/2025 4:52:31 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Time to dump out the Treasury drawer and throw out all the junk that is wasting our money.)
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To: Salman
Leaving morality and religion out of it, Obergefell was an absolutely horrible decision legally. It's as indefensible analytically as was Roe v. Wade, and deserves to place Anthony Kennedy securely in the bottom ten all-time of Supreme Court justices.

But I think stare decisis will make this an 8-1 or 7-2 in favor of keeping it, with Thomas being the only sure vote to overturn.

7 posted on 08/17/2025 4:54:14 PM PDT by Bruce Campbells Chin ( )
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To: Salman

I think Kim Davis was deliberately targeted—the gays could have probably gotten their license in the next county without any trouble. Just like Christian bakers being targeted when there were plenty of other bakers who would be happy to make a wedding cake for a same-sex wedding.


8 posted on 08/17/2025 4:54:50 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: Blood of Tyrants
It was very obvious to Anthony Kennedy himself, who used that exact logic to shoot down the federal Defense of Marriage Act. But he then did a complete analytical 180 in Obergefell to decide it wasn't the states' business after all.

Absolutely reprehensible results-oriented crap decision.

9 posted on 08/17/2025 4:56:28 PM PDT by Bruce Campbells Chin ( )
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To: Verginius Rufus

I think Davis was actually wrong legally, though I agree that Obergefell was a terrible decision.


10 posted on 08/17/2025 4:57:39 PM PDT by Bruce Campbells Chin ( )
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To: Salman

Every time I hear the term “independent agency,” I grind my teeth. I don’t remember being taught in civics that there is a fourth branch of government consisting of independent agencies


11 posted on 08/17/2025 4:59:38 PM PDT by j.havenfarm (24 years on Free Republic, 12/10/24! More than 10,500 replies and still not shutting up!)
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To: Salman

“Roosevelt-era precedent that protects the leaders of independent agencies from being fired by the president for political reasons.” Which independent agencies are they referring to? Surely not the ones whose leaders openly and politically support democrats...


12 posted on 08/17/2025 5:03:55 PM PDT by Texan5 ("You've got to saddle up your boys, you've got to draw a hard line"...)
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To: Skwor

I’m being practical. I do know that marriage is not in the Constitution, but when you use their own logic against them, they have huge problems coping and you can often get what you need.


13 posted on 08/17/2025 5:07:04 PM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: Blood of Tyrants

Unfortunately, the Defense Of Marriage Act made it a Fedgov issue. This was warned against at the time, but the Republicans dismissed these objections.

Not the first or the last time that this has happened.


14 posted on 08/17/2025 5:08:51 PM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: j.havenfarm

This article combines unrelated things, the most important of which IMHO is the ability of the President to fire the heads of independent agencies.

To your point, Congress has the power to create regulatory agencies outside of the Executive Branch, through legislation. In order to become law, such legislation must have been signed by a President and stand up to scrutiny by the Supreme Court. So maybe we will now see that done.

Just remember, it took overt action by the other three branches of government for these agencies to come into existence, and stay that way.


15 posted on 08/17/2025 5:17:11 PM PDT by bigbob (If thou doth eff around, thou wilt findeth out)
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To: marktwain

That is what happens when you decide to hand marraige over to the “state.” The State sees the union as a matter of contract law. They really should call it something else. As such, “turning it over” is silly at this point.

I got married in a church and made vows before God. That means a lot more to me than whatever the Commonwealth of Massachusetts put on their little piece of paper.


16 posted on 08/17/2025 5:31:08 PM PDT by Vermont Lt
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To: Spktyr

because we don’t need ‘married’ fagggots adopting kids and molesting them. Society needs to have standards of decency and should not institutionalize depravity.


17 posted on 08/17/2025 5:51:02 PM PDT by imabadboy99
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To: marktwain

Regarding marriage, I never hear anyone point out that in 2022, Congress passed , and Joe Biden signed , the Respect For Marriage Act. That law explicitly legalizes homosexual marriage under federal law.

So even if the Supreme Court overturned their decision from 2015, same sex marriage is recognized in federal law.

Even if the court would decide now that there really is no constitutional right to same sex marriage, such a decision would not invalidate the law passed in 2022. It seems to me that would be a completely separate issue. And another court case might have to be brought to try to overturn that law, if anyone wants to try to do that.

I also never hear anyone mention that there are many aspects of federal law in which marital status is an issue. So there are federal issues ,in addition to individual state law issues ,regarding how we define marriage.

If we’re going to make a 10th amendment argument about marriage, we would have to then say that the federal government cannot define marriage at all.

Is that really going to happen in this country?


18 posted on 08/17/2025 6:02:37 PM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: Bruce Campbells Chin

Kennedy flipped after his lesbian niece pressed him hard. So we are stuck with all this BS because Kennedy was afraid he would not be invited to Thanksgiving dinner.


19 posted on 08/17/2025 6:03:06 PM PDT by iamgalt
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To: Salman
Since the 1930s the courts have been deferring to the legislature saying “well, if they made a law then there must be some really good reason they are infringing on people's rights. So let's invent some far-fetched nonsense that still does not cover their sticking their nose into this area. Baffle them with BS baby!”

The job of the court is to look at the law and first to say, "is this even something that the government, federal, state or local, should be involved with?"

20 posted on 08/17/2025 6:09:32 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear ( Not my circus. Not my monkeys. But I can pick out the clowns at 100 yards.)
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