As Wyoming Senate hopeful Liz Cheney rejected support for same-same marriage, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is taking her support one step further.
Family ties have not moved Cheney, daughter of the former Vice President Dick Cheney, to change her position on marriage equality. Her openly gay sister, Mary, recently married her longtime partner and the couple shares two children.
Veep Cheney has long been far more progressive than his party in his support for gay rights, citing the lesson of his lesbian daughter. But his candidate daughter Liz takes a harder line.
“I am strongly pro-life and I am not pro-gay marriage,” Cheney said in a statement issued on Friday. “I believe the issue of marriage must be decided by the states, and by the people in the states, not by judges and not even by legislators, but by the people themselves.”
According to Cheney’s office, her comments came in response to a push poll asking voters if they knew Cheney “supports abortion and aggressively promotes gay marriage.” Her campaign shot down the question, saying residents “should not be subject to the kind of dirty tricks this push poll represents.”
Her Republican primary challenger Sen. Mike Enzi denied involvement with this poll.
Meanwhile, ties of friendship are enough for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She will become the first Supreme Court Justice to officiate a same-sex wedding.
She’s scheduled to preside over the Saturday nuptials of her friends, Kennedy Center President Michael M. Kaiser and economist John Roberts (no relation to the Supreme Court Chief Justice) in Washington, D.C.
“I think it will be one more statement that people who love each other and want to live together should be able to enjoy the blessings and the strife in the marriage relationship,” Ginsburg said, according to The Washington Post.
The 80-year-old, who recently said she has no plans to retire from the bench, also booked another wedding in September.
In June, Ginsburg was in the majority which ruled to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act and reinstated a lower court’s ruling, deeming California’s Prop 8 unconstitutional–a sweeping victory for LGBT rights and marriage equality.
Same-sex marriage is currently legal in 13 states and the nation’s capital, but the Supreme Court’s ruling could open doors for more states to allow it.
Sarah Muller