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Chief Justice John Roberts
I did not know about Roberts giving the bro-bone legal advice to a gay group. Kinda interesting actually, Roberts, not the chief Justice, gave advice to one side of a ruling that Kennedy eventually wrote the ruling on.
Chief Justice John Roberts' first cousin, a lesbian, will attend Tuesday's oral arguments in the first gay marriage case to reach the Supreme Court. She will be in the seating section reserved for the justice's family and close friends.
Jean Podrasky, 48, told the Los Angeles Times that she hopes her first cousin will decide to overturn California's gay marriage ban, called Proposition 8, so that she can marry her longtime girlfriend. “He is a smart man,” Podrasky told the paper of the George W. Bush-appointed justice. “He is a good man. I believe he sees where the tide is going. I do trust him. I absolutely trust that he will go in a good direction.”
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While in private practice as an attorney, Roberts, a devout Catholic, gave pro-bono legal advice to gay activists who were challenging a Colorado state law that nullified all anti-discrimination statutes protecting gays and lesbians. Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court's conservative-leaning swing vote, ultimately wrote the opinion striking down that law in 1996, ruling that it appeared to be driven by hatred against a group of people and served no legitimate state purpose. That case, Romer v. Evans, became part of the basis for Kennedy's later opinion in 2003 striking down state sodomy laws as discriminatory against gay people.
I did not know about Roberts giving the bro-bone legal advice to a gay group. Kinda interesting actually, Roberts, not the chief Justice, gave advice to one side of a ruling that Kennedy eventually wrote the ruling on.