LAWRENCE ROCKS

Kennedy's Lawrence opinion is inspiring. The humane and civilized glance beyond our national borders, the sensible attack on the errors of analysis in Bowers, and the full discussion (and acknowledgement) of the harm that sodomy laws have done. . .

This case is going to be a heck of a lot more fun to teach than Bowers.

I agree with Atrios and Jack Balkin that this is a victory for civil rights. I also think that no one should have any illusions that there will not be fierce opposition from religious conservatives on this one. Anyone who thinks that this ruling will simply transform the public discourse is probably too optimistic: think of the fact that the anti-abortion movement really only gained steam after Roe.

In fact, I just got out of the car after driving through Eastern Pennsylvania, and due to my trip and Blogger's screwiness, I'm just finishing up this post that I started this morning. The airwaves in the verdant hills of eastern PA were filled with stories about how the court is acquiescing in the "homosexual agenda" of "destroying marriage." One commentator from the Alliance for Marriage or something like that likened the fight to WWII: this folks are viewing the case (along with the expected Massachusetts ruling and the Ontario high court decision) as an attack on traditional values that the "American people" are just waking up to. Of course, on the one hand, the American people have been fed anti-family propoganda for a long time and need to be schooled by folks like these critics of Lawrence, and on the other hand the "American people" already support these groups overwhelmingly, to hear them tell it.

Pretty amazing stuff.

I hope that the more that such folks are actually forced to articulate a position, the more they will sound like cranks.