NBC news reports that US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has become the first sitting Supreme Court justice to officiate at a same-sex wedding ceremony:
Saturday marked the first time that a Supreme Court member conducted a same-sex marriage ceremony. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg officiated at the marriage of a longtime friend, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts President Michael M. Kaiser, to economist John Roberts in the atrium of the center in Washington.
[..] Ginsburg, who turned 80 this year, was among the majority in a Supreme Court decision earlier this summer declaring that people in same-sex marriages are entitled to the hundreds of federal benefits that couples in opposite-sex marriages have.
Well, three cheers for that! Ginsburg has long been one of my favourite justices on the Supreme Court, both for her compelling life story and her written opinions and dissents – which, while I do not always agree with them, are always sharply and persuasively written. I think that it is very fitting that she was the first justice to help usher in this new era of tolerance and equal rights for gay and lesbian Americans.
I have yet to find any footage of the ceremony taking place at the Kennedy Centre, so for any legal geeks reading, in honour of this occasion I am linking to video footage of a recent lecture/conversation she gave at Colorado Law School.
The topic is judging and the current state of the judiciary, and the full video is well worth watching.
Semi-Partisan Politics 