Ann Althouse: Failure to Pass Amendment Might Lead to Judicial Imposition of Homosexual Marriage

Ann Althouse is a social liberal, and supporter of gay marriage.

So she deserves a lot of credit for admitting that it’s quite possible, if the Marriage Amendment is not passed, that a liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court might impose gay marriage by judicial fiat.

Reviewing an article in the Wisconsin State Journal, she admits:

. . . the judges do not, I think, provide the kind of assurances that would undercut the argument proponents of the amendment make that it is needed to thwart some future state supreme court case finding a state law right to same-sex marriage. . . .

The State Journal article says the following:

“In my judgment that would be a very, very close vote on the court,” said William Bablitch, a former Supreme Court justice who served on the court for two decades and took part in two key decisions relating to gay couples and families. “It could come out either way.”

Recent cases in other states have been a mixed bag.

And further:

For his part, Bablitch guessed that in a hypothetical marriage law challenge, of the court’s seven members, Justices Abrahamson and Ann Walsh Bradley would likely vote to throw the current law out and Wilcox, appointed by former Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson, and Justice Pat Roggensack would likely vote to uphold it.

Justice Louis Butler Jr., an appointee of Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, might vote to throw out the law as well, Bablitch said. That would be 3-2 in favor of ending the ban on gay marriage, leaving Justice N. Patrick Crooks and Justice David Prosser Jr., another Thompson appointee, to decide which side would prevail.

Thus, people who say the Amendment is “not needed” are, quite simply, people who favor gay marriage and wouldn’t mind it being imposed by judicial fiat.