Constitutional lawyer David Boies
believes that the Supreme Court will rule state gay marriage bans
violate the US Constitution.
Boies, along with Ted Olson,
represented plaintiff couples in cases challenging restrictive
marriage bans in California and Virginia. They won both those cases.
(Related: Ted
Olson, Tony Perkins to debate gay marriage on Fox News.)
Appearing on Bloomberg Business' With
All Due Respect to discuss Friday's Supreme Court decision to
hear four challenges to similar state marriage bans, Boies said that
he was confident the high court would legalize such unions in all 50
states.
(Related: Supreme
Court agrees to hear four cases challenging gay marriage bans.)
“The argument is overwhelming that
there's a federal constitutional right to marry the person that you
love and 36 states have held that. Seventy percent of people now
live in a state that has constitutional or statutory marriage
equality. And the history of the Supreme Court is a history of case
after case after case holding that marriage is a fundamental right,
that it protects individual freedom, freedom of expression, freedom
of association, that it's a basic element of liberty. And I think
that the Supreme Court stepped right up to that in the Windsor
case.”
Boies explained that in the short term
there are no consequences if the Supreme Court rules against
plaintiff couples, but such a ruling would allow opponents to return
to the ballot box.
“And now the courts would not
presumably hold it unconstitutional under the federal constitution.
You might still challenge it under the state constitutions and you
may still establish it by legislation but you would not have a
federal constitutional challenge if the Supreme Court goes all the
way against us,” Boies.
“I don't think that's going to
happen,” he added, predicting a 5-4 – or possibly 6-3 – vote in
favor of plaintiffs at the Supreme Court.
“I think it's inevitable, it's the
right thing to do, and we're going to have it this year,” he said.