Pemalite said:
I actually find it interesting that political parties can even influence the supreme court.. And perhaps even slightly concerned.
We do have evangelicals in Australia, but religion tends to be pushed into the background rather heavily which is a massive benefit. We have a very Atheist-heavy population, which I believe is a massive strength of ours culturally, as we can enact change that conflicts with religious views relatively easily for the benefit of the nation... And keep it that way. |
Federal judges in the United States, at the trial, appellate, and Supreme Court Levels, are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. Presidents tend to pick judges that line up with their ideology, and the Senate similarly confirms and denies along those same lines, depending on the composition of the Senate. The Senate Majority Leader, a position that is not defined in the Constitution, has a great deal of control over the process. In February 2016, when Antonin Scalia died and Obama was president, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to hold hearings for a replacement Justice, claiming that it should wait until after the election. In 2020, when Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, McConnell rushed the nomination through in a matter of weeks to ensure it took place before the 2020 election.
At the state level, laws vary. Judges are either appointed by the governor or directly elected by the people depending on the state.
As far as religion, the Northeast and Western states are largely secular, though California actually claims a higher percentage of religious people than any of the three states that border it, including Arizona, which is more conservative than California. In the South, the Southern Baptist Convention, a sect founded in the 1800s to promote a biblical apologia for enslavement of Blacks and the Jim Crow laws that followed after the Civil War, is heavily influential in the government, and there are other fundamentalist sects as well. Utah is the "Vatican" of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons), and Mormonism dominates there, and is also influential in the neighboring states of Idaho, Nevada, and Arizona. Despite this, Salt Lake City, the capital of Utah and the home of the headquarters of the LDS church, is considerably more liberal than the state as a whole and is often mocked for this by the Mormons. In the US, "thoughts and prayers" are mocked by secularists, but this mocking is generally answered with anger by Republicans in Congress and state governors and attorneys-general. In the South, it is almost impossible to run for any kind of public office and be a professed atheist; you'll be relentlessly demonized for it. However, even in the more secular parts of the country, atheists will generally not admit to being atheists.
The Obergefell decision was decided on a 5-4 basis in the Supreme Court along largely along party lines, held simply that all 50 states must recognize marriage licenses made in other states. At the time, there was a justice, Anthony Kennedy (no relation to the Kennedy family), who was a Reagan appointee and, while fairly conservative as a whole, often functioned as a "swing vote." He supplied the fifth vote alongside votes from justices appointed by Clinton and Obama. He retired during Trump's term and was replaced by Brett Kavanaugh. A possible challenge to the Obergefell ruling may come from Kim Davis, a former Kentucky court clerk who refused to process the same-sex marriages of taxpayers in her jurisdiction in defiance of the Obergefell ruling, and refused to allow other clerks to process these marriages, and went to jail for contempt of court until she agreed to allow her clerks to process the marriage certificates. She was voted out of office shortly afterwards.
Last edited by SanAndreasX - on 07 June 2024
