Could Obama Nominate a Supreme Court Justice That Opposes Gay Marriage?

Etch the name Leah Ward Sears into your memory. Why? Because she might just become the next U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

Rumor has it that Sears made Obama's short list, a list of about 10 possibilities to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens. Among other folks on that list include Solicitor General Elena Kagan, Judge Diane Wood from Illinois, Judge Merrick Garland from DC, and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

But Sears is an interesting judicial bird, to say the least. She's the former Chief Justice of the Georgia State Supreme Court, as well as the first African American Chief Justice of any court in the country.

Those are admittedly pretty cool credentials to have. The only problem?

Sears has made it no secret that she supports vehemently anti- same-sex marriage organizations and activists, particularly the Institute for American Values, which has said some rather nasty things about LGBT people and gay marriage. Sears celebrated the Institute's work in a Washington Post op-ed in 2006, citing a statement by the Institute that put forward some rather offensive commentary on the subject of same-sex marriage.

"Sympathy and fairness cannot blind us to the importance of the basic sexual facts that give rise to marriage in virtually every known society: The vast majority of human children are created through acts of passion between men and women," says the Institute for American Values statement. "Connecting children to their mother and father requires a social and legal institution called 'marriage' with sufficient power, weight, and social support to influence the erotic behavior of young men and women ... A prime goal of marriage and family law should be to identify new ways to support marriage as a social institution, so that each year more children are protected by the loving marital unions of their mother and father."

Is that a statement Sears would be willing to stand by? When it comes to questions of family law, would she be all too willing to buy into arguments put forward by the likes of groups including the Institute for American Values, which believe that two men or two women who love each other deserve to be separate and unequal?

Not everyone is quick to associate Sears's judicial philosophy with groups like the Institute for American Values. Rob 2.0 writes that Sears actually has a track record of making some pretty bold moves for LGBT rights as a judge, including striking down a sodomy law in Georgia, and opposing efforts to place a constitutional amendment before voters banning same-sex marriage. (Despite her opposition, the amendment moved forward, and Georgia does indeed ban same-sex nuptials.)

That is all, indeed, very good news. But is it enough to erase suspicion that Sears herself might oppose marriage equality? That's the $6 million question.

But do folks really want a $6 million question right now, especially since we're likely to see marriage equality up for debate in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in the next few years?

Photo credit: tadd_debbie