格肯在波士顿大学法律年度杰出讲座上揭开温莎城堡的神秘面纱

演讲者认为，肯尼迪所谓的“糊涂”观点复杂而相互关联

波士顿大学法学院 welcomed J. Skelly Wright法学教授Heather K. Gerken of Yale Law School on October 2, 2014, for the School’s 2014 Annual Distinguished Lecture. In “权利与结构的连锁齿轮：为什么批评家们错了 美国诉温莎案,” she explained her understanding of the means employed by Justice Kennedy in reaching that landmark opinion.

Professor Gerken began by saying that BU Law is a good place to lecture about 温莎, the 2013 Supreme Court opinion that held that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) deprived same-sex couples of Fifth Amendment equal protection rights, because so many of the School’s faculty have been involved in or written about related cases. However, she said, she hoped to offer a “new and tentative take on 温莎” to the robust debate.

“There’s a little bit of mad genius to 温莎,” she said. 她的评价来自肯尼迪饱受批评的观点，她称赞肯尼迪的观点部分是因为它“认识到权利和结构就像两个相互联系的齿轮”。

格肯教授说，其他许多人对这个案件的结果表示赞赏，但对其他观点却没有什么值得赞赏的地方——这在学术上相当于“爱罪人却恨罪恶”。

她说，肯尼迪的意见书一开始以联邦制为重点，提到“各州的权利不少于11次”，但随后改变了方向，肯尼迪“最喜欢的主题开始出现”。

“啊哈! 你会想，‘这是一个自由的决定！’”她说。 但很快，你就会发现这个观点还有更多的内容。

Comparisons of 温莎 to 罗默诉埃文斯案 (517 U.S. 620 (1996)) made by BU Law 琳达·麦克莱恩教授 have merits, Professor Gerken said, because 温莎 manages to invalidate DOMA without designating gay and lesbian people as a protected class. 她说，这个意见读起来好像还没有第14修正案赋予的权利，但很快就会有。

温莎格肯教授说，美国最高法院的谜团很深，“传统的权利结构分歧”无法适应这一决定。 她说，甚至肯尼迪用来使《捍卫婚姻法案》无效的理论检验也是一个谜。 然而，她仍然选择解读被其他学者嘲笑为“糊涂”的观点。

格肯教授说，强迫在联邦制与自由，或联邦制与平等之间做出决定，是“贯穿宪法理论”的一个错误。 She cautioned: “If you don’t understand the way federalism and rights work together,” you miss the point of 温莎. 这一点需要这两个概念，“这是应该的。”

格肯教授说，当马萨诸塞州和其他州和城市开始向同性伴侣发放结婚证时，同性婚姻问题的概念发生了变化，这迫使政治领导人改变了方向。

“当你看到有人站在讲台上演讲时，你会怎么做？”她问。 “你走过去。”

她说，这说明，在今天，第一修正案的论点是不够的。 她说，持不同政见者不能局限于理论争论，而民族运动很少以民族运动开始。 他们必须“利用结构性安排——联邦制提供的礼物”。

Another theme of her lecture was the subject of her 2005 article “通过决定表示反对,” a concept that she said further demystifies the “mysteries of 温莎.” Dissent, Professor Gerken argues, is a powerful tool, and federalism is not its enemy

“Rights are demanded, not bequeathed,” she said, and 温莎 was right to recognize that.

格肯教授说：“当我们重新思考我们性格的内涵时……我们宪法的内涵也必须重新思考。”

最后，格肯教授探讨了“承认规则问题”，她说这需要“很多州”通过立法。

温莎她说，这是为了“清理政治变革的渠道”，因为同性婚姻引发了越来越多的“骚动”，这向最高法院发出了全国“共识正在瓦解”的信号。

她补充说，肯尼迪的意见允许婚姻平等的支持者“充分利用”，并允许各州“拉着联邦政府一起”。 格肯教授说，肯尼迪坚持要求联邦政府站在一边，以确保“权利和结构的齿轮可以自由移动”，同时也确保各州的“小齿轮”可以推动“国家的大齿轮”。

She concluded by asserting that other reads of 温莎 do not square with the “strange rhetoric of the opinion” and that her view offers an “important constitutional truth,” that rights and structure, “long thought to be inimical,” are actually working together.

Finally, Professor Gerken answered several student questions and engaged in discussion with Professors Linda McClain, Jack Beermann, Gary Lawson, and Kristin Collins about how her views on 温莎 have wider implications, the difference between the “totally powerless” and the “muscular powerless” in affecting change, some points to be explored in greater detail in her forthcoming article, and more.

澳门威尼斯人注册格肯教授

格肯教授主要澳门威尼斯人注册网站研究选举法和宪法。 She won teaching awards while on the Harvard faculty from 2000 to 2005 and at Yale, where she has taught since 2006, and also was named one of the nation’s 26位最佳法律澳门威尼斯人注册网站. Her most recent book is 《民主指数：为什么我们的选举制度失败以及如何解决它 (Princeton University Press 2009). Her “民主指数” concept became reality with the Pew Charitable Trust’s 选举表现指数. An article based on her lecture at BU Law will be published in a forthcoming edition of the 波士顿大学法律评论.

Reported by Jaime Margolis (’16)