let me just say i think he made a decision based on what he thought was in the political best interest of the court. bill: but that s not his job. that s not his job, juan. i agree, i m just telling you you went a step too far. you turn the knob just a little bit too far when it came to the gay rights decision. bill: no, no, no. it s the same thing. based on constitutional right. bill: i don t care whether you think it s based on constitutional right. the constitution doesn t matter o reilly? no. no. it doesn t matter in this debate. the debate we re having now is that the supreme court has put aside its mandate to uphold the constitution. if juan they had said what you say that gay marriage is a constitutional right. if they had the guts to say that then i would have said all right, they are interpreting the constitution that way, okay? but they didn t they didn t. they found a loophole you
let me just say i think he made a decision based on what he thought was in the political best interest of the court. bill: but that s not his job. that s not his job, juan. i agree, i m just telling you you went a step too far. you turn the knob just a little bit too far when it came to the gay rights decision. bill: no, no, no. it s the same thing. based on constitutional right. bill: i don t care whether you think it s based on constitutional right. the constitution doesn t matter o reilly? no. no. it doesn t matter in this debate. the debate we re having now is that the supreme court has put aside its mandate to uphold the constitution. if juan they had said what you say that gay marriage is a constitutional right. if they had the guts to say that then i would have said all right, they are interpreting the constitution that way, okay? but they didn t they didn t. they found a loophole you
that s why i think you can expect a very closely divided court on these issues next week. okay, so i ll ask you to make a guess. which conservative justice might be swayed? i think there s really only one possibility. and that s anthony kennedy. anthony kennedy is mostly a conservative, appointed by ronald reagan in 1987, but he s the author of the court s two most important gay rights decision. lawrence v. texas, which said that states could no longer ban consensual sodomy among consenting adults and the romer case from colorado. so he is certainly the most likely of the five republicans on the court to join the four democrats, at least on the defense of marriage act case, if not also on the proposition 8 case. there are two same-sex marriage cases to be argued next week. so, jimmy, if things don t go your way, if the justices like, you know, i ll just shorthand it, rule against same-sex marriage, rule out its
progress. i think it s going to be at least in keeping with where the poms are showing the country is going. it may be a huge, significant, historic decision. but at a minimum it s going to be a very important gay rights decision. jonathan, if we look at this in the terms of long range politics, how might the high court s ruling in either case affect the president and democrats as well as republicans as they look to shape up their image of rebranding moving into the future? well, look, on this issue democrats are are they re in the right lane. they re on the right side of history. president obama, excuse me, expressed his personal support for marriage equality. i think you now have two possible candidates for president, governor o malley in maryland, governor cuomo in new york, who are rumored to be running for president. they are they actively pushed for marriage equality in their states. on the democratic side, things are fine. it s on the republican party s side where ther
right to be happy about it. similarly on the gay marriage ruling that was one he certainly supported and urged. but the obama administration was not a party to the case. he filed an amicas brief, which means friend of the court. at least it was a cause he supported. you look at the political landscape, it s not clear to me he would have a deal to put his agenda into effect in the next 18 months or so. i mean the gay rights decision last week was a long time coming as a result of the work of gay rights activists, who had strategized it in a built way, it didn t go up to the high court before they were ready to have a ruling go their way. it was not the administration pushing that along. it was their movement. brit i got to go. just one or administration remember barack obama was on the other side of this issue