Chicago Mayor Lightfoot was caught on camera screaming obscenities about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas over the weekend.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot took to the stage at Chicago’s Pride Fest 2022. The mayor, who is a married lesbian, expressed her fury at Justice Thomas after his concurrent opinion that the case protecting gay marriages should be reviewed.
“If you read Clarence Thomas’ concurrence … f*** Clarence Thomas!” Mayor Lightfoot told the rambunctious crowd of LGBTQ+ supporters. “If he thinks we are going to stand idly by while they take our rights … ”
The reversal of Roe v Wade by a 5-to-4 majority in the Supreme Court last week was made based on the court saying cases based on “substantive due process” had overstepped their bounds.
Thomas wrote. “The Court well explains why, under our substantive due process precedents, the purported right to abortion is not a form of ‘liberty’ protected by the Due Process Clause. Such a right is neither ‘deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition nor implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.’ As I have previously explained, ‘substantive due process’ is an oxymoron that ‘lack[s] any basis in the Constitution.'”
Thomas then went on to criticize the current Court for shying away from the issue, while naming several case decisions that had relied on the process in the past, including the case that allowed for gay marriage to be legalized nationwide.
“The Court today declines to disturb substantive due process jurisprudence generally or the doctrine’s application in other, specific contexts. Cases like Griswold v. Connecticut, (right of married persons to obtain contraceptives); Lawrence v. Texas, (right to engage in private, consensual sexual acts); and Obergefell v. Hodges (right to same-sex marriage), are not at issue.” Thomas wrote.
He continued, “For that reason, in future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell. Because any substantive due process decision is ‘demonstrably erroneous,’ we have a duty to ‘correct the error’ established in those precedents.”
Despite his insistence on the matter, it’s clear from his writing that the other 8 Justices on the Court do not agree with Thomas. Mayor Lightfoot is upset over Thomas’s suggestion, but do you think she has any real reason to think they will end gay marriage protections?
