Prospect of McCain Appointments to Supreme Court Should Scare Us All

Just yesterday I did a post on John McCain and the threat his presidency would pose to the legal rights of LGBT citizens. Now today's Washington Blade has an editorial that looks at what I discussed in more detail and again underscores why at all costs McCain must not be elected President. The column also underscores why the Log Cabin Republicans should lose ALL credibility within the LGBT community for their endorsement of McCain. What on earth is wrong with the LCR? Do they truly want to be potential felons again? Here are some column highlights:

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IF YOU CARE about the rights of LGBT citizens, the two most important things you can do in the next few weeks are to vote for Barack Obama and to persuade friends and family to join you. Without for a moment diminishing the importance of the ongoing California initiative fight (which is itself huge), the ground zero for the movement pursuing LGBT equality right now is the presidential election. Either we will go backward, losing key rights we now have and leaving the country in the hands of those who offer at best their grudging “tolerance” (the term Sarah Palin used in the debate), or we go forward with real equality within our grasp.

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John McCain opposes every single legislative proposal for greater LGBT rights, whether it is the hate crimes bill, or protection from employment discrimination, or repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” This is a guy who says we shouldn’t even be able to adopt children! Barack Obama, by contrast, is supportive every time.

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But another, even more important reason for electing Barack Obama is the Supreme Court, which now hangs in the balance. And that is particularly true with regard to LGBT issues. In 2003, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to argue Lawrence v. Texas, the path-breaking Supreme Court case holding all sodomy laws unconstitutional. Lawrence not only eliminated the odious laws that had been used for many years to keep LGBT persons in a second-class status, it also laid the foundation for future progress in LGBT rights. Without it, our community’s future would look much different.

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If John McCain wins, we can expect new justices who will work with the current conservative bloc to turn back the clock on a whole series of important constitutional precedents protecting individual rights. Would a McCain court really overrule Lawrence? It’s hardly a long shot. The case as written by Justice Kennedy is closely tied analytically to the constitutional right to choose to have an abortion. If the latter goes (as it almost surely would if McCain wins) the Lawrence case would be left hanging by a thread.

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BUT THE RELEVANCE of the Supreme Court in this election goes far beyond Lawrence. The court could very well be faced in the next few years with constitutional challenges to state decisions not to recognize other states’ marriages or the military ban or state laws that prohibit employers and landlords from discriminating based on sexual orientation. How those questions are answered will have a profound impact on the lives of LGBT Americans.

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But I’m here to tell you this election matters exponentially. . . . as a community, we have every reason in the world to support Sen. Obama this year. We have a chance to see a president who has championed our rights his entire career. It’s not a chance we should pass up.