In pursuit of happiness

The idea that the SCOTUS is becoming a political tool, a means for partisan gains is not what the high court was designed to be. It is an institution that reminds us of what our constitution and laws were intended to do or evolve to do. To pull back the raines and oversee rights, fairness, lawfulness, freedoms and equality as we still discover them and freedoms that are not yet realized. In the 1980’s when Roe v. Wade was being threatened Ronald Reagan appointed conservative Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. In 1987 Ronald Reagan also nominated conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy who in July 2015 in his opinion handed down in Obergefell v. Hodges Justice Kennedy wrote:
“Until the mid-20th century, same-sex intimacy long had been condemned as immoral by the state itself in most Western nations, a belief often embodied in the criminal law. For this reason, among others, many persons did not deem homosexuals to have dignity in their own distinct identity. A truthful declaration by same-sex couples of what was in their hearts had to remain unspoken.”
“The nature of injustice is that we may not always see it in our own times. The generations that wrote and ratified the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment did not presume to know the extent of freedom in all of its dimensions, and so they entrusted to future generations a charter protecting the right of all persons to enjoy liberty as we learn its meaning. When new insight reveals discord between the Constitution’s central protections and a received legal stricture, a claim to liberty must be addressed.”


Justice Kennedy leaves behind a legacy that no Senator should deny, ignore or set aside. No Senator from our beloved State of Tennessee should ever desire to put a heavily partisan thumb on the scales of justice with the intentions to influence, cause harm or deny others what that Senator himself/herself would expect from full citizenship in the United States of America. We do not live in a country that gets to pick and choose which legal citizens are awarded the rights of full citizenship while others are not. Full citizenship and all that entails is granted to all legal citizens and must have a court that protects that very notion. A court that can objectively view the issues before it, without political influence, biases and prejudices, to determine outcomes of protections of all citizens, fairly and justly while we still explore and learn the meaning of freedom.

Please stand up for us, we are Tennesseans also!

Senators, Please consider our LGBT friends’ rights when considering the next SCOTUS nominee. We have come so far in the right direction, don’t allow these rights to be at risk. Please.