It's all over for gay rights..
(Washington) Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist died Saturday night at his Virginia home.
Rehnquist was diagnosed with thyroid cancer last October. He continued to perform many of his duties on the court but over the past few days went into a decline.
Rehnquist was appointed to the Supreme Court as an associate justice in 1971 by President Nixon and took his seat on Jan. 7, 1982. He was elevated to chief justice by President Reagan in 1986.
Rehnquist's death gives President Bush an opportunity to nominate a second conservative justice to the high court. The President has already nominated Judge John Roberts to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor who is leaving the court to spend more time with her husband.
It is not immediately clear what impact Rehnquist's death will have on confirmation hearings for Roberts, scheduled to begin Tuesday.
Roberts nomination has raised concerns of LGBT civil rights groups. Despite doing pro bono work on a gay rights case Roberts has a history conservative legal opinions as a legal advisor to President Reagan and the first President Bush. Earlier this month four national gay rights groups announced their opposition to Roberts nomination. (story)
Rehnquist has not favored LGBT civil rights in his rulings on the Supreme Court. He supported maintaining Georgia's sodomy law in 1986. In 2003 when the Supreme Court took up the sodomy issue again - this time involving a case in Texas - Rehnquist sided with the minority when the law was overturned. (story)
Two other justices also dissented - Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
Rehnquist's death offers Bush a third chance to put a long term conservative imprint on the nation's highest court. In addition to finding a replacement for Rehnquist on the bench, the President will have to select one of the justices to be Chief Justice.
One name that surfaced as a possible chief justice earlier this year was that of Scalia, a staunch conservative, strict constitutionalist, and vocal gay rights opponent.
"The court has largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda," Scalia wrote in the dissent on the Texas sodomy ruling and took the unusual step of reading his dissent from the bench.
In the next few years two major LGBT civil rights issues are expected to be heard by the court. The first will be a legal challenge to "don't ask, don't tell", the ban on gays serving openly in the military. The second will involve gay marriage.
