Quote Originally Posted by RandBlade View Post
While prior decisions (of which there have been a number) won't automatically be overturned, a SCOTUS ruling that they were made in error would open the door to them being overturned wouldn't it?

Which in turn would create a messy quagmire it would seem to me. To overturn the equalisation of the laws and open the door to potentially dozens of states closing the door on marriages that have already taken effect. Then creating the mess as to what happens federally, in those states and across state lines for people who got married when it's no longer permitted.

Seems incredibly messy to me. For pragmatic reasons as much as legal reasons I'd have thought the cleanest solution by far is not to reverse this jurisprudence.
It's. . . there is a framework disconnect here, Rand.

If there isn't something active, there isn't something to overturn. You can overturn a binding precedent because it is continuing to exert an effect. You can't overturn a settled ruling like Hollingsworth, because it doesn't have any still-active elements. What you can do is re-implement something that conflicted with a former settled ruling, like the ban on same-sex marriage which was struck down by Hollingsworth, with the expectation that the reimplementation will not itself be struck down.

For cleanliness, yes the best solution is to not reverse the circuit courts who struck down bans, particularly since SCOTUS took the surprising step of not issuing an injunction against performing marriages in those jurisdictions until the matter was ruled on. But while there might be some mess, depending on precisely how they rule on the two questions, it's not necessarily going to be a big mess or quagmire. Rather unlikely in fact. Anymore than it would be if the states spontaneously decided to switch to a universal civil-union system, or decided they were going to stop giving marriage any recognition by the government in the first place. Most disruption and mess would arise from people deliberately trying to create it.