Romer v. Evans is a case brought to the Supreme Court by Richard G. Evans (Respondent), a gay employee of the mayor of Denver against then Governor Roy Romers, The Attorney General of Colorado, and the State of Colorado (Petitioner). The case was centered around an amendment to the state constitution that prohibited “the state of Colorado… at any level of state or local government from adopting or enforcing any law or policy which provides that homosexual, lesbian, or bisexual orientation, conduct, or relationships constitutes or entitles a person to claim any minority or protected status, quota preferences, or discrimination”. The amendment was drafted in response to changes in the municipal codes of Denver, Aspen, and Boulder which passed
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In Justice Kennedy’s estimation, this amendment does nothing but “withdraws from homosexuals, but no others, specific legal protection from the injuries caused by discrimination, and it forbids reinstatement of these laws and policies”. Justice Kennedy supports this claim by stating that “enumeration is the essential device used to make the duty not to discriminate concrete and to provide guidance for those who must comply”. This implicates that the various city ordinances were properly combating discrimination against those of varying sexual orientations by enumerating their protection and that the revocation of this enumeration, as purported by Amendment 2, would be counterintuitive to maintaining equal protection of the law. Additionally, Justice Kennedy lists the various protections that gays and lesbians will lose under the enforcement of Amendment 2 such as an 1990 Colorado Executive order which bans employment discrimination based on sexual orientation as well as the nullification of various legal protections against unjust discrimination in housing, real estate, and welfare services. An example that hits home is how the amendment even went as far as removing rules in state colleges which prohibit discrimination on campuses, allowing for intolerance to spread like wildfire with no legal redress for …show more content…
If that idea prevailed, then it would be impossible for Gay marriage and further civil rights victories that stemmed from Evans to ever come to fruition. In my estimation, such a decision would lead to a LGBTQ community that wouldn’t only be marginalized but demonized by legislatures across the country and would lead to government sanctioned gay conversion therapy on a good day and mass incarceration on a bad one. It’s disturbing to entertain this dissenting opinion becoming the actual opinion of the court not just for the obvious implications on the gay community, but also for the doors it would open for reversing legal victories for other minority
In Justice Kennedy’s estimation, this amendment does nothing but “withdraws from homosexuals, but no others, specific legal protection from the injuries caused by discrimination, and it forbids reinstatement of these laws and policies”. Justice Kennedy supports this claim by stating that “enumeration is the essential device used to make the duty not to discriminate concrete and to provide guidance for those who must comply”. This implicates that the various city ordinances were properly combating discrimination against those of varying sexual orientations by enumerating their protection and that the revocation of this enumeration, as purported by Amendment 2, would be counterintuitive to maintaining equal protection of the law. Additionally, Justice Kennedy lists the various protections that gays and lesbians will lose under the enforcement of Amendment 2 such as an 1990 Colorado Executive order which bans employment discrimination based on sexual orientation as well as the nullification of various legal protections against unjust discrimination in housing, real estate, and welfare services. An example that hits home is how the amendment even went as far as removing rules in state colleges which prohibit discrimination on campuses, allowing for intolerance to spread like wildfire with no legal redress for …show more content…
If that idea prevailed, then it would be impossible for Gay marriage and further civil rights victories that stemmed from Evans to ever come to fruition. In my estimation, such a decision would lead to a LGBTQ community that wouldn’t only be marginalized but demonized by legislatures across the country and would lead to government sanctioned gay conversion therapy on a good day and mass incarceration on a bad one. It’s disturbing to entertain this dissenting opinion becoming the actual opinion of the court not just for the obvious implications on the gay community, but also for the doors it would open for reversing legal victories for other minority