On the Supreme Court's questioning in today's CLS v Martinez hearing, veteran court reporter Lyle Denniston – proving once again that you never can tell what the highest court will make of a dispute – suggests that many Justices are dubious about both the facts and the questions before them.
When the Supreme Court is confronting a major constitutional decision, but Justice Anthony M. Kennedy begins the questioning by wondering exactly what case is before the Court, the chances that a big decision will emerge drop perceptibly at the very outset. And when Kennedy is followed by several colleagues voicing deep doubts about what the facts are, the case begins to look very much like a waste of judicial time.
AP's Jesse Holland describes the inquiries of the "sharply split" Court:
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito questioned the school's lawyer sharply, saying that being forced to admit someone who doesn't share their beliefs was a threat to the group. But Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor pressed the group's lawyer on notion that if they can ban gays, other groups can legally ban women and minorities.
NPR's Nina Totenburg highlights Justice Kennedy's remarks:
Justice Anthony Kennedy, whose vote could be the deciding one in the case, asked about the religious nature of CLS. "Your argument, at its most fundamental level, is that religious organizations are different because religion is all about belief." But, he continued, "don't we also have a tradition of separation? That's the whole reason why church and state, for many purposes, are kept separate, so that states are not implicated with religious beliefs."
USAToday's Joan Biskupic reports on the "spirited and sometimes testy exchange".
Slate's Dahlia Lithwick discusses the arguments in what she calls an "unbelievably hard case".
RNS' Adelle Banks writes that the Justice "peppered" attorneys with hypotheticals.
The Christian Science Monitor's Warren Richey offers this report.
