Verdict First, Then the Trial

Wake us when it’s over

Not that we didn’t know which way Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was going to vote on the gay-marriage issue that the court will decide by June. But just in case we didn’t, here’s Snoozin’ Bubbe herself on the matter:

 Americans are prepared to accept a U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, pointing to what she described as a sweeping change in attitudes toward gays. In an interview Wednesday in the court’s oak-paneled east conference room, Ginsburg also said President Barack Obama’s health-care law, which is under attack in a case before the Supreme Court next month, will be a central part of his legacy.

The 81-year-old justice discussed the public’s increasing acceptance of gays against the backdrop of resistance by Alabama officials to a federal court order that took effect Monday and made it the 37th gay-marriage state. With the high court set to rule on the issue by June, she said it “would not take a large adjustment” for Americans should the justices say that gay marriage is a constitutional right.

“The change in people’s attitudes on that issue has been enormous,” Ginsburg said. “In recent years, people have said, ‘This is the way I am.’ And others looked around, and we discovered it’s our next-door neighbor — we’re very fond of them. Or it’s our child’s best friend, or even our child. I think that as more and more people came out and said that ‘this is who I am,’ the rest of us recognized that they are one of us.”

Because constitutional law should always be based on anecdotes and feelings — which might explain how Obama managed to get through Harvard Law.  But what do you expect from the former ACLU lawyer who can’t manage to sit through the annual Obama dronefest known as the State of the Union speech (not that I blame her)? By her own admission, she was a little tipsy last month when the emperor gave his address.

“Because before we went to the State of the Union, Justice Kennedy brought in … it was an Opus something or other, very fine California wine, and I vowed this year, just sparkling water, stay away from the wine, but in the end, the dinner was so delicious, it needed wine,” Ginsburg said. Ginsburg has also appeared to fall asleep during the president’s annual address to Congress in prior years.

She’s certainly had plenty of company. By the way, that Opus-something wine? Choice.