Republican Senator Lashes Out at Marriage Equality in Supreme Court Hearing – By Pema Levy (Mother Jones) / March 22, 2022
John Cornyn is very worried that LGBTQ Americans have too many rights.
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During the second day of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing Tuesday, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) took the occasion to attack marriage equality. His line of questioning comes as conservatives have continued to use state legislatures and the courts to roll back rights for LGBTQ people. While a majority of Americans support marriage equality, it remains a target for repeal by many on the right.
In 2015, the Supreme Court held that marriage is a fundamental right guaranteed to same-sex couples as well as opposite-sex couples. Cornyn seemed to have two chief complaints about giving rights to the LGBTQ community, which he summed up in this question to Jackson: “Isn’t it apparent that when the Supreme Court decides that something that is not even in the Constitution is a fundamental right and no state can pass any law that conflicts with the Supreme Court’s edict, particularly in an area where people have sincerely held religious beliefs, doesn’t that necessarily create a conflict between what people may believe as a matter of their religious doctrine or faith and what the federal government says is the law of the land?”
Cornyn’s objections are, first, that granting equal rights to LGBTQ people conflicts with the religious beliefs of some people. To which Jackson responded, “Well, senator, that is the nature of a right. That when there is a right, it means that there are limitations on regulation, even if people are regulating pursuant to their sincerely held religious beliefs.”
