Marriage Arrives
Slate News
Slate Podcasts
4.5 • 6K Ratings
🗓️ 11 April 2015
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On April 28, the Supreme Court will finally take up the constitutionality of same-sex marriage bans. Dahlia Lithwick previews the cases with Paul Smith, the lawyer involved in the 2003 gay rights case that helped set the stage for this historic event.Please let us know what you think of Amicus, our legal affairs podcast. Our email is amicus@slate.com.Join Slate Plus! Members get bonus segments, exclusive member-only podcasts, and more. Sign up for a free trial today at http://slate.me/1ENza1a
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Amicus, Slate's podcast about the law and the U.S. Supreme Court. |
| 0:06.0 | I'm Dahlia Lithwick. I cover the Supreme Court for Slate, and thanks for joining us. |
| 0:11.0 | So we thought we would spend this week really drilling down on these historic same-sex marriage cases that are going to be argued later this month, April 28th, at the court. |
| 0:20.0 | These are probably going to be the most |
| 0:22.2 | important gay rights cases the court has ever heard, but sometimes the issues are really |
| 0:26.2 | technical and sometimes they're very hard to understand. So we are so lucky to have a fantastic |
| 0:32.4 | Supreme Court Sherpa here this week to walk us through the cases. Paul Smith is chair of the appellate and |
| 0:39.2 | Supreme Court practice and co-chair of the media and First Amendment election law and |
| 0:43.0 | redistricting practices at Jenner and Block in Washington, D.C. Paul has argued 16 cases at the U.S. |
| 0:50.1 | Supreme Court involving incredibly important free speech and civil rights matters. |
| 0:55.1 | Among the big, big victories in his career has been Lawrence v. Texas in 2003. |
| 1:00.4 | That was the landmark gay rights case where the court struck down sodomy laws in Texas and 13 other states. |
| 1:07.1 | Paul was also former co-chair of Lambda Legal's Board of Directors. |
| 1:14.5 | Paul Smith, what a thrill to have you here. Welcome to Amicus. |
| 1:28.4 | Thanks. It's nice to be here, Dahlia. So I think in order for folks to understand the landscape we're in, help us understand how we got very quickly to a posture where 37 of the 50 states and the District of Columbia allow gay marriage, |
| 1:34.1 | the other states don't, and the court agrees to hear this case now when they would not hear this case in October. |
| 1:36.1 | Well, what happened was that one of the federal circuits that ruled on these issues ruled the |
| 1:42.8 | other way. |
| 1:43.2 | There had been a number of a whole wave of decisions for federal courts in the last year or so saying that there is a constitutional right to marriage equality. And then the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati decided a case the other way. And so that created a situation where the court could no longer stay its hand. |
| 2:01.1 | It had to come in and tell us what the federal constitution says on this issue. |
| 2:05.6 | And can you help us understand why the court agreed to hear four consolidated cases? |
| 2:11.0 | I know there were a whole bunch of cases. |
... |
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