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She was placed on the Supreme Court by President Obama but recently she's been instrumental
in court actions favorable to religious freedom and to marriage. What's going on with
Sonia Sotomayor?
This is the CitizenLink Report.
Hi, I'm Stuart Shepard along with Bruce Hausknecht who follows the courts for Focus on the Family.
Hi Bruce.
Hi Stuart.
First, let's talk about the court cases that set this up. The first one's out of Utah.
Right. This is a, what I would call a same-sex marriage case where some couples want to get
married who are of the same gender and so they try and do it, they're refused and so they
sue the State. And Utah of course has a marriage amendment defining marriage as one man and
one woman. They sued earlier this year and in December, about the third week of December
a Federal district court judge in Utah declared the Utah marriage amendment unconstitutional.
Voted on by the people, put in to place, torn down by a federal judge.
Yes and in one order and basically he said marriages can go on -- same-sex marriages can
begin immediately. Now the State of Utah asked the judge to temporarily stop it while they
appealed which is a typical procedure. It's called 'requesting a stay' because they're
going to obviously appeal that decision to the 10th circuit court of appeals in Denver.
And it changes hundreds of years of established law.
Well yes, hundreds of years and thousands of years in terms of marriage throughout the
world and in one afternoon a federal district court turns that all upside down and people
are running to the county clerks for marriage licenses.
So that's the background on that one. The other one involves a group of Nuns known as
the "Little Sisters of the Poor." Tell us about that one.
It's a non-profit ministry operated here in Colorado run by Catholic Nuns. The filed suit
as part of the 90 plus lawsuits filed against the HHS Mandate which is that birth control,
contraceptive, possible abortion inducing drugs that have to be included in employer
health plans.
Under Obamacare. Under Obamacare. And this lawsuit was brought
because this ministry of Catholic Nuns obviously adhering to Catholic doctrine does not believe
in either abortion or contraception. And they said we don't want to participate in this
so give us relief from that. And so they had filed suit earlier and a judge just a couple
of weeks ago said no and no injunction. The law was supposed to take effect -- or is supposed
to take effect January 1. That's why a lot of these ministries are in a hurry up mode
to get it challenged, get an injunction.
So that's the background for both of these. Now the Little Sisters of the Poor case, it's
more complicated and there's a lot more going on there but we'll leave it at the basic facts
for this particular conversation. How does this intersect with a Supreme Court
Justice Sonia Sotomayor? How did she get involved in these cases?
Well it's an interesting quirk of federal procedure that maybe most viewers aren't
familiar with. But each of the US Supreme Court Justices also is in charge of emergency
motions that come out of the various circuits. There are 11 Federal circuits and the 10th
circuit which Utah is part of and Colorado is a part of is overseen by Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
Which is to say that each of the Supreme Court Justices watches over a region of the country
if you will, for any emergency appeals that come up to that level.
Right, that's exactly right and when they get these emergency motions they're generally
very small, they're not asked to decide an entire case. They're very small in terms of
focus and the issue. And they can say yea or nay or they can ask the full Supreme Court
to get involved in helping her decide that issue.
And there's supposed to be, and in this case, I think you can see it in both these cases
they are, items that need to be dealt with quickly. It has to be dealt with in a very
timely fashion or something bad will happen.
Yes because what happened in both cases is Utah went to the 10th circuit for a stay,
a request to immediately stop that order in order to stop the same-sex marriages, as well
as the Little Sisters of the Poor. When they lost at a federal district court level they
went immediately to the 10th circuit and asked for a stay and were denied all on New Year's
Eve. And then they filed with the Supreme Court that same day, New Year's Eve.
Which goes to Justice Sotomayor.
Which went to Justice Sotomayor.
On the Little Sisters of the Poor case Sotomayor said?
She said I will stop the enforcement of the HHS Mandate against your ministry while I
request briefing, meaning legal argument, from the Department of Justice as to why I
should or shouldn't give this stay. And so that was done, last Friday was the deadline
for the Department of Justice to submit briefs and now we're waiting.
And we say quite a few headlines about that that Sotomayor acted in a way that was favorable
toward the religious freedom of this group of Nuns. In the marriage case it was a little
more complicated what she did. Explain that.
Well in the marriage case she also said, look I need to -- I need more time here so I will
require briefing from the plaintiffs in that case and in the meantime I will refer this
issue to the full court. So she got all of her brother and sisters on the court involved.
The accepted the briefing from both sides and just yesterday granted the stay that should
have been granted by the district court judge in Utah all along.
And in my understanding is it came to the Supreme Court in the morning, she referred
it to the full court, and by that afternoon they issued this very short, very terse statement
but it basically smacked down the district judge and said that's not how you do this.
Yes -- Yes. It all happens very quickly. And it really, it was a no-brainer even for the
justices because when you are upsetting the apple cart and changing hundreds of years
of law on marriage overnight, you're creating same-sex marriages that are going to themselves
become entitled to certain privileges, rights and benefits under the State and Federal laws.
And that should never be done without further thought and further appellate review.
So here we have two cases: One involves religious freedom. One involves marriage and the definition
of marriage going to a person who is placed on the US Supreme Court by President Obama.
And she is known as someone who would be on the liberal wing of the court on social issues
and also someone who would see the court in a more activists role as establishing what
the constitution means as we go along as a living document. Both of these we would have
thought would have gone the other way with her looking over these but they didn't.
What happened?
Well this is what we find most interesting about these cases because she does have a
reputation as a liberal. Before she came on the court she was known as suggesting even
if it was only half-in-jest, that the courts of appeals are the ones that make the policy
around this country meaning their decisions are so important that they change laws by
themselves without the involvement of Congress or the State Legislature. So she has this
track record of being a liberal and being in support of activists courts creating new law.
And yet in both of these cases she did something that's considered fairly conservative
which is stopping the process and in one case getting the rest of the court involved.
And so we have to give her some kudos for that.
And the difference here perhaps is these were not decisions made on the issue of the life
issue. They weren't made on the life issue. They weren't made on the issue of the definition
of marriage. They were made on the mechanics of the courts if you will. We forget sometimes
because we follow the social issues so closely at the Supreme Court. They deal with a lot
of other things that are quite arcane that deal with the nuances of law and all that.
And the nine of them may agree on more things than we think they do because we always talk
about that 5 -- 4 split on social issues. These deal with how the courts run and she
appears to have come down on the right side of these.
That's a really good point because this is a procedural issue. These actions should have
been taken. Any reasonable person, lawyer, judge, would tell you that this simply protects
the status quo from being severely disrupted and parties harmed in the process. So it should
be a no-brainer and these judges, these Justices including Sonia Sotomayor usually typically
agree on the right thing to do in those procedural cases.
And we should point out the statement that come down from the Supreme Court on the marriage
case, there were no dissents that were identified which would suggest perhaps, we don't know,
that there was unanimity among the nine Justices that the district court was out of order that
they needed to straighten up.
Right and any time you get unanimity on a case that is this controversial, you know
that the unanimity was on a very minor procedural point where they can all agree because it's
an easy question.
Okay, so I'm going to ask it straight up: Is Sonia Sotomayor suddenly becoming a conservative justice?
No, I don't think you have to fear that at all. I think she will remain a diehard liberal
once these cases actually get before the Supreme Court.
Alright. We will keep an eye on these cases as they go along and keep you informed about them.
Bruce, thank you for your insights.
Thanks Stuart.
And thank you for watching. We do appreciate you joining with us each week here. You may
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Remember to pray for all nine Justices on the Supreme Court. Pray that God would provide
them with wisdom and insight as they make these crucial decisions about so many things that
are in play around our country right now. So many issues that are going to see their
final decision for the nation of the United States at the Supreme Court decided by those
nine human beings.
And remember, Stand Tall and Be Heard!