Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas called out his fellow justices this week, expressing formal disappointment that the Court refused to hear several gay “marriage” cases.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court declined to hear marriage appeals from Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin. In his statement, which was in reaction to the Court's decision to not hear an Arizona immigration amendment, Clarence — who famously goes years between asking questions from the bench — said that the Court should have heard the marriage cases.
“We have recognized a strong presumption in favor of granting writs of certiorari to review decisions of lower courts holding federal statutes unconstitutional,” wrote Thomas. “States deserve no less consideration. … Indeed, we often review decisions striking down state laws, even in the absence of a disagreement among lower courts.”
“But for reasons that escape me, we have not done so with any consistency, especially in recent months,” said Thomas, who also said that he also believed the Arizona case should have been heard.
“At the very least, we owe the people of Arizona the respect of our review before we let stand a decision facially invalidating a state constitution,” described Thomas. “I hope my prediction about whether that petition will be granted proves wrong. Our recent practice, however, gives me little reason to be optimistic.”
Thomas' statement comes after months of promotion of same-sex “marriage's” constitutionality by liberal justice Ruth Ginsburg, who presided over a same-sex ceremony earlier this year. Thomas was joined by fellow conservative Antonin Scalia in his critique.
