Remembering
James Robison

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The Brew: Could the Badly Decided Obergefell Be Overturned? Newsweek Is Worried

By John Zmirak Published on February 10, 2025

All sorts of hills we decided not to fight on and surrendered to the enemies of faith and common sense now appear to be eligible for reconquest, thanks to President Donald Trump and his team. They ripped the lace curtains off our elites’ Overton Window, stripped off the prison bars, and smashed the jaundice-colored glass. Just three months ago, when I wrote that Trump should defund corrupt church nonprofits such as Catholic Charities, I thought I was whistling “Dixie,” building Minas Tirith in the air.

Then boom! Trump issued an executive order defunding church groups that traffic immigrants — and lazy Marxists by the hundreds are now streaming out of church-owned buildings with their Swingline staplers in cardboard boxes, looking at the job postings boards at their local Cracker Barrels.

For years, The Stream has been reprinting articles from the heroic activists at MassResistance who never accepted the tortured logic of Obergefell v. Hodge, which tyrannically redefined the most basic institution of human life; even Chief Justice John Roberts predicted it would lead to lawfare targeting Christians. As of course it did, with wedding planners, photographers, bakers, and other professionals hunted by LGBTQ tort attorneys across the country.

The MassResistance folks, whom CPAC banned from its conference because it offended the Log Cabin Republicans, never gave up. They’ve been sponsoring resolutions in state legislatures calling for that bad legal decision to join the same medical waste bin where Roe v. Wade’s remains now molder, and we’ve been reporting on their efforts.

Now Newsweek is taking note — and urging panic. It reports:

The Supreme Court could overturn its landmark 2015 ruling that established a nationwide right to same-sex marriage if a case addressing the matter is brought before it, experts told Newsweek.

Last month, Idaho lawmakers approved a resolution that called for the Court to undo its Obergefell v. Hodges decision that declared a constitutional right for same-sex couples to marry.

After President Donald Trump appointed three conservative justices to the Court in his first term, cementing a 6-3 conservative supermajority, the Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 stripping away the constitutional right to an abortion. Since then, there have been concerns that the Court’s conservative justices could do away with other rights, including the right to same-sex marriage.

Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, two conservative justices who dissented in Obergefell v. Hodges, have suggested that the decision should be reconsidered. …

Kate Shaw, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and constitutional law scholar, told Newsweek that the resolution from Idaho lawmakers “seems purely symbolic” since the Court can revisit Obergefell only if there is a “live dispute.”

“The Supreme Court can only decide ‘cases’ and ‘controversies,’ so it can’t revisit a precedent like Obergefell without a live dispute,” Shaw said.

She continued: “This Idaho resolution seems purely symbolic or expressive. But if a state sought to go further—to pass or enforce a law that limited marriage to opposite-sex couples, in clear violation of Obergefell—a challenge to that law could quickly make its way to the Supreme Court.” …

Shaw also said she doesn’t believe there are five votes to overturn the Obergefell decision.

“But the changed composition of the Court since Obergefell, Justice Thomas’ Dobbs concurrence explicitly calling on the Court to reconsider Obergefell, and the majority opinion in Dobbs — which called into question the Court’s reasoning in cases like Obergefell — definitely suggests that constitutional protections for marriage equality are vulnerable to attack,” she said.

Of course, some of the best justices on the court are getting older, with retirement likely in sight. We need to make sure that President Trump has the right candidates in mind should Clarence Thomas, for instance, decide to collect his pension. Trump can’t rely on the Federalist Society, which provided such dubious nominees as John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett — before stabbing Trump in the back by supporting the absurd 14th Amendment effort to ban him from presidential ballots as an “insurrectionist.”

Ted Cruz has long been in play as a stellar conservative thinker whose difficult personality keeps making his reelection even in Texas a nail-biter every six years. Others are suggesting that Florida Governor Ron de Santis, who is term-limited and on his way out, might be an excellent choice. Certainly other Republicans with presidential aspirations in 2028 would welcome his appointment to the court.

Repatriations Will Continue Until Morale Improves

Many of us were worried that Trump’s efforts to repatriate the 10 million-plus illegal immigrants whom the Biden regime waved across our borders would stall in the face of manipulative video clips broadcast ad nauseum by MSM outlets intent on making ICE officers look like stormtroopers conducting ethnic cleansing sorties. Remember how those media portrayed Trump’s 2017 efforts to save unaccompanied minors from human and sex traffickers as “putting children in cages”? How Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez staged a photo op of herself weeping in front of a chainlink fence (which turned out not to hold anyone on the other side)? Bishops and pastors grabbed hold of their tiny violins, and Trump’s effort faltered.

Not this time. The left is so perfectly possessed that it can’t help thundering down the Gadarene slope into the sea. Instead of heart-rending pics of lovable nannies being torn away from the rich white kids they raise, we’re getting treated to videos like this one of a Mexican national pulling down Old Glory and burning it, replacing it with the flag of the country she voluntarily abandoned, then threatening to kill police.

(3) End Wokeness on X: “BREAKING: Mexican is arrested at Hart Memorial Park for removing a U.S. flag, replacing it with the Mexican flag, and threatening to kiII police https://t.co/1Evoxo7fB4” / X

Stop Being So White!

In fact, we have an embarrassment of riches. Here’s Rep. Ayanna Pressley denouncing the population of Iowa for being too white.

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If that hasn’t lifted your spirits, here Democrat lawmakers try to storm a government office where budget cuts identified by the Department of Government Efficiency have sent federal workers home, halting their important work of funding lesbian macrame collectives in Congo or imposing social media censorship in Moldova:

Americans’ hearts will surely break as they watch congressmen and their well-paid staffs spend valuable minutes standing around on the sidewalk, demanding more billions from the taxpayer to promote abortion, transgenderism, and CIA-sponsored coups around the world.

Meanwhile, Trump is moving aggressively to protect the people who voted him into office from the elites who have been abusing them. More evidence of that abuse emerges with every DOGE audit and Department of Justice inquiry into weaponized prosecution. Here are some numbers you’ve probably never seen, illustrating the impact of Biden’s refusal to enforce our immigration laws, from the scholarly Center for Immigration Studies:

Maybe now when you see people post clips of empty Target stores in border states, you’ll be happy instead of sad.

Zmirak Joins Metaxas to Rate Trump’s Progress So Far

Gloating isn’t classy. But offering prayers of gratitude for an end to persecution? The Christians who thanked the emperor Constantine for legalizing the Church were happy to shout out such prayers, and so are we. Check out my conversation with author and broadcaster Eric Metaxas about Trump’s D-Day landing to liberate America from its totalitarian occupiers. In it, I give credit where it’s due, especially to Pat Buchanan for defending Americans back when betraying us seemed cool.

Along The Stream…

Don’t miss this wise, compassionate look at the sexual confusion young people feel in our chaotic culture, and how loving parents should respond without compromising their faith. Dr. Jennifer Morse of the Ruth Institute explains.

This afternoon, learn from biblical scholar Dr. Jules Gomes how the Israelites were once tricked into adopting a reckless, indiscriminate immigration policy … and paid the price.

 

John Zmirak is a senior editor at The Stream and author or coauthor of 14 books, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism. His newest book is No Second Amendment, No First.