Reason Express writes:
It is difficult to tell exactly what message the U.S. Supreme Court sent by rejecting, without comment, a conservative challenge to the Massachusetts same-sex marriage experiment. Does the court want a better, clearer case to address the issue? Do the justices really want the states to hash it out amongst themselves? Do they need more action on the issue from Congress? Or is the Court simply stalling for time until a new chief justice is appointed?
There is little doubt that Chief Justice William Rehnquist is gravely ill with cancer, so the last theory may be the easiest one to swallow, at least at first. But the complaint itself was rather odd, essentially asking the Supreme Court to “save” Massachusetts residents from the Massachusetts high court.
With a possible state referendum on gay marriage a key topic for debate among Massachusetts state legislators, the Court may have concluded that Massachusetts was well on its way to saving itself.
There’s actually no difficulty at all here. The U.S. Supreme Court has long made clear that it has no business second-guessing that decision, even if the Justices think the state court’s interpretation of the state’s own constitution or statutes is flat wrong.
The Court is only entitled to review state court rulings if a federal right is involved. (For instance, if the lower court decision rejected a claimed federal right to have the state recognize same-sex marriages, then the Court would have jurisdiction, though it probably wouldn’t agree to hear the case unless there were a disagreement on this federal question among lower courts.) The only federal claim in this case is that the Massachusetts’ decision so far departs from the proper interpretation of the state constitution that it violates the Guarantee Clause, which says “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government.” But, first, the Supreme Court has long taken the view that Guarantee Clause issues are nonjusticiable, which is to say not subject to review by the courts. And, second, even if the Court might want to reverse that position, it’s highly unlikely to do it in order to start correcting state judges’ misinterpretations of state law.
The Reason Express item is right in part — the Justices think that if anyone is to correct the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s decision, it’s the Massachusetts voters. But whether the voters ultimately do decide to correct it or not is irrelevant. Longstanding and well-settled law makes clear that the Court needs to stay out of this.
The case could be as clear as possible; Congress could be unable to act; the Chief Justice could be in the best of health; but the Court still wouldn’t reconsider a decision such as the Massachusetts one. And that’s because, yes, the states are entitled to decide this particular question on their own, at least without the Supreme Court second-guessing them on how their own constitutions need to be interpreted.
Lyle Denniston (in Slate) also has a good piece about this.
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