Obama reveals his favorite Supreme Court decision

President Obama dished on his favorite Supreme Court decision during his presidency, and it wasn’t either of his interviewer’s top guesses: the court’s defense of Obamacare or its rejection of the Defense of Marriage Act.

The New Yorker’s Jeffrey Toobin seemed surprised to hear that Obama’s pick was the court’s decision not to interfere with lower court rulings striking down bans on same-sex marriage.

“In some ways, the decision that was just handed down to not do anything about what states are doing on same-sex marriage may end up being as consequential—from my perspective, a positive sense—as anything that’s been done,” Obama said. “Because I think it really signals that although the Court was not quite ready—it didn’t have sufficient votes to follow Loving v. Virginia and go ahead and indicate an equal-protection right across the board—it was a consequential and powerful signal of the changes that have taken place in society and that the law is having to catch up.”

Obama also shed doubt on elderly Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s fears that she could not be replaced should she retire: “Well, we’ve got a pretty good track record,” Obama said. “We’ve got a couple of Supreme Court Justices confirmed who I think are doing outstanding work.”

In the past, Ginsburg has said she does not want to retire partly because the president would not be able to appoint “anyone I would like to see in the court.”

“Having said that,” Obama added, “Justice Ginsburg is doing a wonderful job. She is one of my favorite people. Life tenure means she gets to decide, not anybody else, when she chooses to go.”

Obama seemed proud of his legacy of appointments, touting their diversity. Toobin writes that Obama’s 280 confirmed appointments now make up roughly a third of the federal judiciary.

As for himself, Obama has no judicial aspirations, saying it’s too “monastic” for his taste: “I love the law, intellectually,” Obama told Toobin. “I love nutting out these problems, wrestling with these arguments. I love teaching. I miss the classroom and engaging with students. But I think being a Justice is a little bit too monastic for me. Particularly after having spent six years and what will be eight years in this bubble, I think I need to get outside a little bit more.”

Read the full interview here.

 

 

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