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No, this isn't true. This isn't how the US courts work. The US courts decide what is consistent with the law. Let's look at the two issues you're discussing, abortion and gay marriage. These were both decided by Supreme Court cases, Roe v. Wade and Obergefell v. Hodges, respectively. In Roe, the court found that outlawing abortion would constitute a violation of rights already established in the Constitution, specifically the due process clause of the 14th amendment. This means that the same legal rationale for your right to abort is also the legal rationale that prevents a state from, say, passing a bill stating that "prewett is now a criminal because we say so." In the case of Obergefell, the court decided that denying recognition for same-sex marriages from other states was a violation of equal protection, because opposite-sex marriages from other states were recognized. This is the same right that, say, allows you to marry someone of another race and then go to another state and have that marriage continue to be valid. So no, the court is not deciding, morally, what is right and wrong. If you think that, that's probably the source of your confusion. The court is deciding that the implication of the constitution and laws as written demand this conclusion in order to be logically consistent. You might disagree with the logical (or moral) basis of their decision. Sure. You might say they're legislating morality. No. |