re: #174 Islamo-Masonic Vourdalak

Thanks. Another question: why does the official doc contains info about the irrelevant opinions of two other justices?

Because Sotomayor referred the issue of continuing the stay to the entire Court. If a minimum (I think 4) Justices had supported taking the case and/or continuing the stay it would have remained in effect until the Supreme Court heard either that case or a related one and issued their own ruling on the matter.

IOW it’s a very, very bad sign for the social conservatives that they only got two Justices willing to prevent marriage from proceeding in the interim. Because the Court is especially wary of creating harm through its own inaction, which is what happens now if they undo marriages they tacitly agreed to allow. And if they just try to close the door next year, by disallowing future marriages without dissolving those marriages already performed they will in effect create a 14th Amendment equal protection violation.

Roberts and Kennedy have effectively broadcast how they are going to rule. Alito is just dumb enough to still rule against SSM, but his vote is irrelevant at this point.