The Court is currently filled with 6 Catholic and 3 Jewish justices, with all three Jewish justices (Ginsburg, Breyer and Kagan) generally considered liberal. In one poll last year, 81% of American Jews supported same-sex marriage, so it's a given that these three will support same-sex marriage.
This means that at least two Catholics will have to vote in favor of same-sex marriage, and that would be an unprecedented public outing of opinion in direct contravention of the Catholic Church's official stance, not unlike the issue of abortion. Additionally, for any conservative Justice to come out in support of overturning Prop 8 / DOMA, he would have to defy social peer pressure.
If you consider my prior post about how Joe Biden got this whole ball rolling last year, I think it'll be quite a remarkable statement to have three very prominent Catholics coming out in the open, supporting equality under same-sex marriage.
So what would a Libertarian think? A natural Libertarian would prefer government remain neutral on the subject, neither supporting nor blocking it. It's actually a perfect means of resolving moral dissonance for a Libertarian Catholic. If, as a Libertarian Catholic, you vote to overturn DOMA and/or Prop 8, in effect you might be signalling that, while personally you disagree with same-sex marriage, it is not up to government to prevent others from entering a mutually-respected contract (which is what marriage is).
Crazy as it sounds, I think the justices could rule 8-1 in favor of overturning most if not all of Prop 8 and DOMA, with the lone holdout being Thomas.
If you consider my prior post about how Joe Biden got this whole ball rolling last year, I think it'll be quite a remarkable statement to have three very prominent Catholics coming out in the open, supporting equality under same-sex marriage.
So what would a Libertarian think? A natural Libertarian would prefer government remain neutral on the subject, neither supporting nor blocking it. It's actually a perfect means of resolving moral dissonance for a Libertarian Catholic. If, as a Libertarian Catholic, you vote to overturn DOMA and/or Prop 8, in effect you might be signalling that, while personally you disagree with same-sex marriage, it is not up to government to prevent others from entering a mutually-respected contract (which is what marriage is).
Crazy as it sounds, I think the justices could rule 8-1 in favor of overturning most if not all of Prop 8 and DOMA, with the lone holdout being Thomas.
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