oberto

So why did they appoint him in the first place?

many societies are facing this right now, see Russia, Japan, Germany, Italy, places with quickly declining populations. Meanwhile, other countries are rapidly growing. In the world of geopolitics, is having a rapidly declining population and seeing your stake at the table fade away, a good one? The countries popping out the most babies have traditional views regarding the role of marriage in building a society. And no, the 0.0001% of children born from artificial insemination does not nudge the needle enough.

Untrue. Courts have also upheld many Prop 8-like measures in other states - see Nebraska's Initative 216, which the Eighth Circuit ruled was acceptable (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_for_Equal_Protection_v...). So the courts disagree, and you cannot simply cherry-pick the "right" cases where the preferred side wins, to say that courts (who are always right) support you.

And ultimately, the courts are decided by majority vote, by being appointed by politicians that citizens vote for. A Supreme Court in Russia may find a rational basis for opposing gay marriage, and then write that in an opinion.

The "civil right" phrase is a red herring. You can define any arbitrary item as a civil right - let's say unborn children deserve not to be killed, and thus we should ban all abortion. Then we can talk about any CEO who's donated to Planned Parenthood as stripping civil rights from fetuses and should be unfit for CEO-ship. Gay marriage is at a similar level of contention. Many believe it to not be a a civil right at all until very recently, nor is it accepted by many cultures. Or some accept civil unions but not semantically marriage. If you think you're always going to be right, there will be a definition of "civil right" or just plain "correct" that is diametrically opposed to you.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7526663