DOMA is Doomed

Well I have listened to the audio of the oral arguments before SCOTUS today and it is completely clear to me that, on a 5-4 decision – what a surprise – the Supreme Court will very probably kill the Defense of Marriage Act.

 

It all comes down to, naturally, one vote. Anthony Kennedy’s vote.

Truly, we could all save some big time dollars in salaries and furlough the other 8 Supreme Court Justices until such time as one of them retires or dies and we have a new justice in the mix. Getting Justice Kennedy’s swing vote is the key to any given majority decision these days.

So how do I know that Kennedy will vote to declare DOMA unconstitutional? He said this yesterday:

“But when it has 1,100 laws, which in our society means that the Federal Government is intertwined with the citizens' day-to-day life, you are at – at real risk of running in conflict with what has always been thought to be the essence of the State police power, which is to regulate marriage, divorce, custody.”

This is going to be all about states’ rights for Justice Kennedy. Not a bad thing.

Not a bad thing at all.