There's Room for 100 Trillion More

Listening to the Supreme Court hearing oral arguments about California's Proposition 8 on C-SPAN yesterday, I was amazed to hear Charles Cooper, representing the proponents of Proposition 8, which prohibits same sex marriage in California, explain to the court his justification with a straight face. Apparently he's hanging his hat on the idea that marriage exists in the United States as a legal institution to enable the government to regulate procreation. Justice Breyer finally breaks in at the 26 minute point and kind of humiliates Cooper with the pretty obvious counterargument, and Justice Kagan puts a cap on it to where the whole room is laughing at Cooper who dissolves into meaningless stuttering.

Everyone's focusing on Justice Kennedy as the swing judge and how he seemed sympathetic to the adopted children who would be happier if their same sex adopted parents could get married, which is certainly significant, but I think it's this exchange that marks the point where the logical end of this became clear. If a rational decision comes from the court, it now has to be to strike down Prop. 8, just based on the above exchange alone.

I guess the homophobe lobby had to come up with some kind of argument that sounded vaguely technical. Somehow the fact that Justice Breyer sounds like Jeffrey Tambor makes it all the more delicious.