28-06-2025
10 years of marriage equality — and what's next
Ten years ago this week, the Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that the Constitution guaranteed gay people in all 50 states the right to marry. The White House lit up in Pride rainbow colors that night to celebrate the victory. After years of fierce and ugly debate, it seemed as though America could finally move on. And Obergefell, whose husband had died of ALS before their case reached the court, could finally begin to move on from his grief.
But that's not how the following decade played out. Anti-LGBTQ+ politics has mounted a comeback in the GOP. Republican support for marriage equality has dropped to just 41 percent. And Obergefell has struggled to process his loss — and to keep certain promises he made to his late husband on his deathbed.
'The trajectory of his life and the trajectory of American politics would twist, turn, double back on themselves, like tree branches searching for light,' writes Dylon Jones in this week's Friday Read, an intimate profile of the man who brought marriage equality to America.
How can he move forward at a time when he sees American politics moving backward?
Read the story.
'Justice Jackson would do well to heed her own admonition: 'Everyone, from the President on down, is bound by law.' That goes for judges too.'
Can you guess who said this about Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson? Scroll to the bottom for the answer.**
Yep, We Asked Bernie About It … Underdog Zohran Mamdani's stunning victory in the Democratic primary for New York mayor has kicked off a debate over what it represents about the state of the party — and where it goes from here. Holly Otterbein caught up with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a fellow democratic socialist who endorsed Mamdani in the race, to get his thoughts about what this means for the Democrats. 'I think they have a lesson to learn,' he said of the party establishment. 'Whether or not they will, I have my doubts.'
Still reeling from the bucket of major decisions the Supreme Court just dumped? The lawyers at happy hour won't let you hear the end of it. Better drop these talking points into conversation so no one tries to cross-examine you. (From Associate Editor Dylon Jones)
— Read Kyle Cheney so you can talk about how this shifts legal strategies like you passed the bar. 'The Court made it harder to block federal government policies, but not impossible,' you might say. 'They left open several avenues, one of which is class action lawsuits — and an organization representing immigrants has already refiled as a class action case.'
— Point out the potential loss within the victory in the fight against HIV: 'The Court says it's perfectly constitutional for the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force to require insurers to cover drugs that prevent HIV. But the reason they say it's constitutional is that the Health and Human Services secretary has the power to sack the task force and appoint new members. RFK Jr., who has raised questions about whether HIV is the cause of AIDS (to state the obvious, it is), ain't exactly a comfort to public health advocates.'
— One for your book group: 'Everyone, there's something of such great national importance that it has been recorded in Supreme Court opinion, and I think we should take part: Let's do a line-by-line analysis of Uncle Bobby's Wedding.'
How Mamdani Would Change America … Mamdani's upset win isn't just a signal that change could be coming to New York politics — it's a sign that American politics writ large could shift, especially for cities and the Democrats that govern them. We reached out to current and former mayors, as well as politicos with a deep understanding of city politics, just how a Mayor Mamdani might shift the future of urban governance and the party itself. They disagreed about whether this could represent a broader surge of democratic socialism. But one thing they all seemed to agree on? 'People across America are voting for change.'
'Ohio's Anthony Fauci' Runs for Governor … During the Covid pandemic, demonstrators — some of them armed and carrying signs with antisemitic symbols — gathered outside the home of the state's health director, a Democrat named Amy Acton who'd been appointed by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine. Her family was harassed, and she said she faced political pressure to sign health orders she opposed, so she resigned. But now, Liz Skalka reports, Acton is using that experience in a way no other health director who found their job politicized by the pandemic has before: to attempt a political comeback. Acton is running to succeed DeWine as governor, and her background in the health department is a major part of her pitch. 'I saw under the hood during Covid,' she tells voters. 'I saw how fragile our democracy is.'
Could Iran's Exiled Prodigal Prince Take Over? … For nearly 50 years, Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran's last shah, has been criticizing the Islamist autocracy from exile, mostly in the United States. He says that if the regime falls — a possibility Trump has raised on social media — he should be the one to remake the country into 'a free and democratic Iran.' Many in the Iranian diaspora agree — but others see him, after decades away, as too distant from the on-the-ground reality. Daniel Block, a senior editor at Foreign Policy, explores what his prodigal return would mean.
From the drafting table of editorial cartoonist Matt Wuerker.
**Who Dissed? answer: It was Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, in her majority opinion curtailing the ability of lower courts to issue nationwide injunctions against the White House.
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