Jul. 28, 2012

UCI School of Law looks to Supreme Court's future

At a UCI School of Law event on July 17, constitutional scholar Erwin Chemerinsky predicted that the U.S. Supreme Court will rule in favor of same-sex marriage next year. Speaking on a program reviewing the major decisions of the court's just-concluded term, the UCI School of Law dean said that the court "will find a right to marriage equality for gays and lesbians" next term and that Justice Anthony M. Kennedy will write the majority decision. Pointing out that Kennedy wrote the only two Supreme Court decisions in history to advance the rights of gays and lesbians, Chemerinsky said Kennedy will "see the issue as his most important legacy on the Supreme Court." "Ultimately, Justice Kennedy has to decide does he want to write the next Plessy v. Ferguson or the next Brown v. Board of Education," Chemerinsky said. The dean also predicted that the Supreme Court next term will strike down part of the federal Voting Rights Act and "substantially cut back" on affirmative action precedents. "I think this is going to be a very significant blow to diversity," he said. — Don J. DeBenedictis