What if marriage equality is overturned?

[Fuzzy Bear]

Invalidating hundreds of thousands of 4-year-old marriages, some of which are elderly husbands or elderly wives at the very end of their lives, would have a backlash so fierce it would probably require the passage of a Marriage Equality Act that enshrines Obergefell into federal law.

Couldn't the existing marriages be grandfathered in, and states be then permitted to ban future marriages only?

Well, yes.  With Judicial Activism, anything's possible.

Obergefell was political activism by the SCOTUS.  It redefined the term marriage sub silentio.  So why couldn't they do creative sculpting in crafting a new opinion?

Obergefell, like Roe, was Judicial Activism at its worst.  That being said, reversing Roe would not create a legal and bureaucratic nightmare.  Obergefell, on the other hand, would indeed be a legal and administrative nightmare.  As a moral issue, I obviously do not support Obergefell, but I do view it as a fait accompli and while I don't sign off on SSM, it's one of those things that's "on them", morally.  I do see a situation where a repeal, even a partial one, would do nothing but make lawyers rich.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

That being said, reversing Roe would not create a legal and bureaucratic nightmare.

This is not true.

[pbrower2a]

It would open a judicial can of worms of precedents being deprecated whenever the political climate changes. Such would create legal anarchy. People would not even be able to offer twenty-year contracts (such as mortgage loans) because some court ruling could overturn some clause and invalidate the contract.

[Fuzzy Bear]

That being said, reversing Roe would not create a legal and bureaucratic nightmare.

This is not true.

It wouldn't create the legal and bureaucratic nightmare that a reversal of Obergefell would.  But Roe sanctions infanticide, so bring on the legal and bureaucratic nightmares.

[HillGoose]

i'd be pissed

[America Needs R'hllor]

That being said, reversing Roe would not create a legal and bureaucratic nightmare.

This is not true.

It wouldn't create the legal and bureaucratic nightmare that a reversal of Obergefell would.  But Roe sanctions infanticide, so bring on the legal and bureaucratic nightmares.

The legal and bureaucratic nightmares will be nothing compared to the wrathful resistance that tens of millions of sane Americans would stage against the dying breed of social conservatives trying to control women's bodies.

[Progressive Pessimist]

That being said, reversing Roe would not create a legal and bureaucratic nightmare.

This is not true.

It wouldn't create the legal and bureaucratic nightmare that a reversal of Obergefell would.  But Roe sanctions infanticide, so bring on the legal and bureaucratic nightmares.

The legal and bureaucratic nightmares will be nothing compared to the wrathful resistance that tens of millions of sane Americans would stage against the dying breed of social conservatives trying to control women's bodies.

If this happens, as penance, I want every Trump voter to look these people in the eyes and tell them to their faces how little their lives and livelihoods matter to them.