Reasonable Court Activism

Bruce over at Gay Patriot is (yawn) yet-again blasting the Log Cabin Club (LCR) for its filing of a court case seeking to overturn Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. That case recently had a set-back.

Although this is really just another anti-LCR Bruce tirade, (he has, like, WAY too many issues with them), Bruce and many others have long decried the filing of civil rights based court cases. 

In fact, I think he blames all the anti-gay DOMA’s that were passed in the last election on the ruckus raised after the MA Supreme Court  legally recognized that gays and lesbians are equal to Heterosexuals when both have decided to start families by getting married.

Of course, being the nonsensical git that I am, I would rather blame the people who actually created and voted for the DOMA’s, not the MA Supreme Court and the “Judicial Activism”  it has been often described as practicing. Or even the people that brought the court cases forward.

At any rate, his solution is always that we should be out there on foot convincing Americans, and in this case, the GOP controlled Congress to change the laws.  That’s all fine, but he is ignoring some basic fundamentals. (Besides the fact that the current majority of the leadership of the GOP is prejudiced toward gay and lesbian Americans.)-And planning on capitalizing on that prejudice to raise money and votes in the next elections. But I digress.

If we are NOT out there filing these court cases, someone else surely will be, and from the opposite side of the argument.  And if we do not vigorously defend ourselves and counter their lawsuits with ones of our own, then only that one side of the argument will be heard. It is a competitive world. And our legal system is deliberately set up as adversarial. The crucible of truth.

You can decry “Judicial Activism” all you want, but when you look at the cases, it’s clear that the majority of the “Activism” involved is coming from the plaintiffs and defendants, not the judges.

So if Lambda Legal, the ACLU, HRC, SLDN, and yes, LCR, are not out there filing court cases,  its not going to stop the Traditional Values Coalition, the American Family Association, the Center for Law and Justice (Sekulow’s group), the Liberty Counsel, The Pacific Justice Institute, The Center for Military Readiness, etc., from filing their own.

On any given topic of importance to the country, the court systems are a part of the national public discussion. You might not like that, but its a fact. And if we don’t speak up in those that venues, we are just giving up and ceding that particular field of battle to the other side. And that is a bad idea.

So while court cases such as the one from LCR can at times cause difficulties in terms of overall strategy, they are still vital and necessary and must continue. And LCR should be thanked and commended for taking this battle on. That would be the reasonable point of view.

-Gryph

Comments

[Jack]

The crowd at GayPatriot would rather live as second class citizens than, oh God forbid, see the courts advance freedom and equality.

In my lifetime, except for the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act passed by Congress and President Truman's executive order ending segregation in the military, every step forward has come through the U. S. Supreme Court: Brown, Miranda, Griswold, Roe, Lawrence, to name a few.

As much as I believe in our democracy, let's face it: most Americans vote their emotions, fears and prejudices. They have proved it through state amendments to ban same-sex marriages and civil unions. If the issue had been left to the people, we would still probably have racially segregated schools.

Finally, I've never understood the GayPatriot crowd's obsession with the idea that Log Cabin Republicans, etc., can change GOP policy by working within the GOP. Frist, DeLay, Bush, Dobson, Falwell, Bauer, Perkins, Sheldon, Wildmon, et al, have shut down the Big Tent.

[Bruce (GayPatriot)]

Jack-

I do not live as a second-class citizen. I'm sorry you need the Government to validate you as a human being.

I do not.

[Patrick (Gryph)]

I do not live as a second-class citizen. I'm sorry you need the Government to validate you as a human being.

I do not

Quite true. Instead, GP apparently needs the approval of the Republican Party to "validate" himself as a human being.

Those of us in the know actually find our real validation in our mere existence, not through an idealology of any kind. "I am, Therefore I am" so to speak.

[Jack]

Bruce,

As gay men, you and your partner do not have the same rights as a straight couple across the street. That makes you second class citizens, whether you care to admit it or not.

No, Bruce, I don't need the government to validate me as a human being. But, unlike you, I'm tired of the government denying me the equality before the law that is guaranteed by the U. S. Constitution.

[Michigan-Matt]

Gramps, when are you going to get off the (yawn) bash Bush, bash GP, bash anything contrary to your limited world view mantra?

It's all so tiresome, but nice to know that at least one other person is reading your rants these days. Welcome Jack --tinfoil hats will be passed out at midnight.

[Michigan-Matt]

or is Jack GrampaGryph?

[Patrick (gryph)]

Wow. Graced by the presence of the Uber-Troll I see.

[Jack]

Hate to disappoint you, Michigan Matt, but I am not Gryph. I have no idea who he is but I am glad I happened upon his blog.

[Michigan-Matt]

Gramps, that you can call anyone a "troll" and not have the heavens open up and strike you down for hypocrisy is a miracle. But it's ok; the views you hold will continue to be protected as minority speech well into the next decade.

[Patrick (gryph)]

michiganmatt:

By definition, I cannot be a "troll" on my own blog you idiot. I also don't have to be polite either as this is my house. Behave yourself or I'll kick you back under your bridge.

[Jack]

Gryph,

Post a little more often. You have a good take on the issues and it would be interesting to have more.

[Michigan-Matt]

Gramps, wow your short term memory must be going, too? I didn't call you a troll for what you do here --it's for "the games" you play over at GP-- and you ARE lucky the heavens don't open and quash you.

No need to threaten me with banishment --unless that makes a one-eyed fat man feel good. I'm gone; adios.