BY DAN
KENNEDY
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Friday, June 27, 2003
Sodomites 6, theo-fascists
3. US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia gets it exactly right.
Commenting on the Court's six-to-three decision throwing out the
Texas sodomy law and, in effect, virtually legalizing same-sex
relations, a
bitter and angry Scalia
accuses his colleagues of having "taken sides in the culture war" and
having "largely signed on to the so-called homosexual
agenda."
Damn straight! This week has really
been a wondrous one for progressives, who've gone from looking at the
Court as a virtual extension of the Bush presidency -- whose very
existence it had hurried into being -- to, surprisingly, a last
bastion of justice.
Earlier this week, of course, the
Court
upheld affirmative action
in college admissions, although rigid quota systems will not be
allowed. Unfortunately, the court made a bad call in upholding a law
ordering public libraries that receive federal funding to filter out
Internet
porn. But the republic will
survive that a whole lot better than it would have survived bad
decisions in the sodomy and affirmative-action cases.
These stunningly good decisions are
accompanied by recent buzz that, contrary to longstanding rumor, none
of the justices is seriously contemplating retirement.
Media Log's theory: buyer's
remorse. When five justices rushed to hand the presidency to George
W. Bush two and a half years ago, they may have seen him as a
garden-variety conservative cut from the same mold as his
father.
Now that they -- or at least Sandra
Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy, the most moderate of the five
conservatives -- have gotten a look at how radical Bush really is,
they've decided to stay put for as long as they can.
Long live the Supreme
Court!
posted at 8:38 AM |
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Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
