Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy: “The question is whether or not the federal government, under our federalism scheme, has the authority to regulate marriage.”
Chief Justice John Roberts (to Edith Windsor’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan): “You don’t doubt that the lobby supporting the enactment of same sex-marriage laws in different states is politically powerful, do you? … As far as I can tell, political figures are falling over themselves to endorse your side of the case.”
Associate Justice Elena Kagan: “What happened in 1996 — and I’m going to quote from the House Report here — is that ‘Congress decided to reflect an honor of collective moral judgment and to express moral disapproval of homosexuality.'”
Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: “For the federal government then to come in to say ‘No joint return, no marital deduction, no Social Security benefits, your spouse is very sick but you can’t get leave’ … one might well ask, ‘What kind of marriage is this?'”
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