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One probably shouldn’t expect OC Pride’s 2018 Grand Marshal, C.J. Duron to comment extensively on the implications of Masterpiece Cakeshop v. the Colorado Civil Rights Commission (2018) . He is 11 years old, after all.
For myself, my head is with Kagan (58 years old) and Breyer (79 years old), my heart with the dissent of Ginsburg (85 years old) and Sotomayor (63 years old), and the tension painful. The swing vote here, Anthony Kennedy (81 years old) sought to thread a needle: to protect the rights of a baker in the least destructive mechanism possible for his overall legacy in defense of LGBTQ rights. Essentially, Kennedy’s opinion rules on behalf of the bakery, whose owner refused to make a wedding cake for a same sex couple’s marriage, and against the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, because in Kennedy’s view, the commission was prejudicial when they said things like “it’s despicable if religion is used to justify discrimination.”
This case is a blip on Kennedy’s legacy with respect to LGBTQ rights, which opens with him invalidating one Colorado Constitutional provision in 1996 (a provision barring homosexuals the right to bring discrimination claims) in Romer v. Evans, and may well end with him invalidating another Colorado decision. And despite this latest judgment, Marshal Duron may still get a birthday cake from Masterpiece Cakeshop for his 12th birthday if he so desires. Just not a wedding cake. Which he won’t need for quite a while. Because he’s still 11.
Kennedy’s legacy will always come down to Lawrence v. Texas (2003) – which invalidated every criminal sodomy law against consenting adults (laws that were seldom enforced against anyone except LGBTQ individuals), and U.S. v. Windsor (2010), which rendered the ‘Defense of Marriage Act’ unconstitutional. Oh, something else happened in 2010 as well: the House and Senate were taken back by Republicans.
With his vote in today’s opinion, Husted, Ohio Secretary of State v. Randolph Institute (2018) Kennedy may have just set the stage for all his legacy to come undone. Husted upheld Ohio’s voter purge process, whereby the any person who refuses to vote may be removed from the voter rolls if that person fails to send in a note to the regristrar in time. Anyone struck in Ohio cannot register on the same day and cast a provisional ballot, like they can in California (and few other states). To register, most voters need proof of residency – a drivers license, a utility bill, etc. That’s not always so easily achieved (e.g., for spouses who don’t have bills in their own names, for subtenants living in a shared household with other occupants, for people who move regularly due to work).
In the event of a SNAFU (like Los Angeles’ printing error last week that deleted 118,000 voters from the rolls), Ohio voters may have no remedy whatsoever. And it’s sort of an iron law of elections: stuff goes wrong, SNAFUs happen. They happen more often to poorer voters…
In February 2016, Antonin Scalia passed away from the Supreme Court. Mitch McConnell determined to block any nominee Barack Obama proposed, regardless of qualifications – a novel assertion of partisan power arising from a majority. In 2018, 35 seats on the Senate are up, with 26 held by Democrats or Democratic-aligned Senators, and only 9 by Republican. Ten Democrats run in states that voted for Donald Trump in 2016. Oh, and McConnell plans to continue the Senate’s role into summer. To fill vacancies to the courts? Or to keep Democrats in competitive races in Washington longer?
Absent a ‘magical blue wave,’ there’s great reason to expect that the Senate majority that has governed since 2010 will continue. But just in case a ‘magical blue wave’ starts swelling, McConnell can easily defend his majority with a carefully orchestrated set of purges, and thus ensure the Supreme Court looks quite different in a few years time than it does today.
So…what ought Marshal Duron do in next week’s OC Pride Week festivals about this looming threat? Ideally, he’ll do what LGBTQ Pride Organizers ask of him: smile, wave, be brave, and do his best to enjoy the parade. The bigger problems are a task for the rest of us to work on, for now. But looking at this 11 year old Grand Marshal, perhaps we can share a grim smile at how the world is changed from that he was born into, for him, probably for the better. Many of those changes are worth defending.
Bigotry is an inherent flaw of mankind.
Targeting those that are not like us in thought, action, ethnicity, religion…
Working to overcome it is a perpetual job.
“Bigotry is an inherent flaw of mankind.”
Perhaps, but we have come a long way.
To me, an honest look at Jewish communities 70-100 years ago, and LGBTQ communities 30 years ago tells me not only what is possible, but what amazing and diverse strategies can be conceived to break through bigotry. Yet there’s the equally pressing need not to answer the bigot with bigotry of our own…the job is perpetual, because we keep erring, keep needing a course correction.
*We believe……”The Do Dah Parade” was and is real America! Remember these famous words: “Bigotry and Common Sense” are not congruent!
*What a trip….went to the CDM Chamber Meeting this morning to see Tony Rack….
He is looking good! While we were there we had to endure the State of City Report
by Scott Peotter. Good Grief this person has no consciousness of other people’s time
He is just perfect for NB City Hall. Our bet is that no one ever attends City Council
Meeting when he shows up.
Meanwhile, Tony helped catch the Golden State Killer using Cold Case Officers using
DNA technology…very cool. DeAngelo is safely tucked away in custody in a Sacramento.jail. Also, his GRIP Program of 11 years seems to be reducing Gang Crime in the OC, Although, the Drug Cartels are still running the streets in the whole state.
When asked if Tony wanted to follow in the footsteps of Cecil Hicks and Mike Capizzi
and become a judge – his answer: “I’ve already been a Judge!” Four more years!
Yeah he’s been on a publicity tour of council chambers. Tuesday he took an hour of Anaheim council time showing off his work against human trafficking – possibly one rare area where he’s been doing a good job.
I guess he’d better do council publicity tours, Spitzer’s been doing that for a year on any issue he can think of.
Hey wait, this is not a Weekend Open Thread!
Perhaps it was written too open-endedly, merging three distinct stories into one…sorry-not-sorry, that’s how I think and write.
I’m gonna miss the parade this weekend, but hope someone attends, and if they snap photos, they find nothing but color and beauty in what they see.
My initial experience with issues involving LGBTQ community in the OC came from this story – a Huntington Beach lawyer’s effort to introduce a ‘shoot the gays’ proposition for a vote in California. I imagined what sort of people might sign a petition to bring that sort of ballot measure forward…may all such people move away, and find themselves unwelcome in civilized society.
Ah – me and my late brother Crab tried to track that lawyer down that year! We went to his supposed address… but it was just a PO box at a Mailbox Express. And then we asked the Mailbox Express owner to stop letting him use a box there.
I got a picture of that visit somewhere
Vern Pat Nelson
March 26, 2015 ·
You’ve probably heard that nutjob Huntington Beach lawyer Matt McLaughlin is trying to get a measure on the 2016 California ballot, the “Sodomite Suppression Act,” that among other things calls for the killing of any person who touches another person of the same gender with “sexual intent.” It would never pass, but some people don’t think it’s so funny, our Attorney General is figuring out how to prevent him from even filing and getting signatures for it, and one argument being considered is that this guy is “facilitating terrorism.” And then today USA Today went and printed the guy’s “address” in HB, 19744 Beach Blvd, so me and my brother and dog decided to go down there and see what’s up. Turns out it’s a Mailbox Express. Hey I’ve been to that place a dozen times, it’s run by nice Koreans. My brother Michael “Crab” Nelson decided to give the owner a warning that he’s got a customer who’s a “genocidal freak” and he should probably consider getting rid of him. — at Mailbox Express.
I might have seen something about that when googling for interesting people in the OC. IIRC, the Mailbox Etc. dimension broke a few days after the initial story, so that would be a follow up as the press caught up with you. Important work, kudos on you (and your brother) for doing it (your dog, however, just gets kudos for being a good dog).
I couldn’t remember whether any signatures were ever collected…or whatever happened to the attorney in question. One might think that a call for terrorism and/or genocide would be grounds for disbarment…and that clients might shy away from such a person.
Hopefully, neither he nor any similarly vicious friends are in attendance this weekend.
The “Sodomite Suppression Act,”? Somebody saw that movie “Booty Call” with Vivica A. Fox. Hilarious. These two Pakistani Liquor store clerks are talking that talk about “mud packers” and such…….Hilarious. You will have to see the movie to get the entire concept.
Meanwhile, it is just amazing that people have this much time on their hands to worry about what someone else is doing in their bedrooms. Good Grief is it really 1952? Ozzie and Harriet had separate beds in their bedroom and David and Ricky shared a bedroom! Ralph Kramden
and Ed Norton….where are you guys? Trickzy and Alice….”Bang zoom to the moon!”
Actually not really, this person got no traction. Just some outraged headlines.
This was a really good piece. I’m sorry that I had missed it until now. Time permitting, I will eventually push back on your view of the lib-mods opinions. (So much to do!)
Kennedy seems to have tarnished his legacy again today in the Redistricting cases, but as of an hour ago the details are not yet out.
Do they really think God cares about 2 dudes from a backwoods planet like Earth buttf*cking each other? Seriously? You would think God would have bigger issues to concern itself with, like stars exploding, galaxies colliding with each other, etc.