Love (and Obamacare) Is The Law Of The Land

United States Supreme Court building. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Two U.S. Supreme Court decisions on two days in June told us that (A) this isn't as conservative a court as we were led to believe, and (B) Republicans and all other right-thinking people are behaving  like Chicken Littles.  You know, the sky is falling and all that.

On June 25, the Affordable Health Care Act (also known as Obamacare) survived another challenge when the justices ruled 6-3 that federal subsidies can be used to help pay for the six million Americans who need affordable health insurance.

Republicans in Congress and on the presidential campaign trail have been hollering about getting rid of the ACA for years.  Trouble is, they don't seem to have a decent alternative--or at least we've never heard one--besides tweaking it to favor the big insurance companies.

Because of this ruling, some states are considering dumping their health insurance exchanges in favor of the federal one.  If they're as badly run as Minnesota's MNSure program, with technical and logistical snafus galore, then the Court just gave those states an out.

On June 26, the justices ruled 5-4 that same-sex marriage is now legal in all 50 states.  This includes the 13 or so states that had outright bans, or whose appeals were pending in their Supreme Courts.

As Americans who have seen positive portrayals of gays and lesbians on TV and/or in their own lives celebrate the decision, others are reacting in horror as the America they thought they knew and loved had turned into an alien culture in which Christianity isn't the only game in town any more.

Same-sex marriage is going to be the 21st century version of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion--an issue we'll still be fighting about decades from now.   Only instead of pitting
"life begins at conception" versus "a woman's right to choose", it will now be "homosexuality is a sin" versus "everybody's got the right to love".  And just like abortion, conservative states will keep passing laws to make it more difficult for gay and lesbian couples to get married, find employment or raise families.  No one wins.

These two rulings signify that the Supreme Court recognizes that America is changing with affordable health care and same sex couples becoming an accepted part of society, and the laws need to change with them.  What they have also done is to open a new can of worms that ultimately might do more harm than good to the country.