The first rule of the Supreme Court is that there are, basically, no rules for the Supreme Court. The court can reverse prior decisions, and the court’s policies and practices can change if the justices so desire it. As a result of this, it’s difficult to know what the justices are going to do at any given moment.

With that giant caveat, the justices most likely are going to decide on Friday to take one or more cases for review this term — which would mean a decision would be expected by the end of June.

The pace and pure number of all of the cases making their way up the chain have, effectively, forced the justices’ hands on the matter. Even if they had hoped in 2013, by dismissing the California Prop 8 challenge, to put off the issue for another four or five years, the issue came back to them far more quickly than that. Even if they had hoped this past October, by denying certiorari in cases where the bans had been struck down, to put off the issue until next term, the 6th Circuit decision came quickly enough to bring the issue up to the justices a second time this term.

This time, there is no good way for the justices to dodge the issue. And, while the justices could keep re-listing the cases until it forces them into the next term, such a move seems unlikely given the current climate.

The actions of SCOTUS are beginning to remind me of all the ways the North tried to appease the South before over slavery.  How can anyone not see this as an equal rights under the law issue?

So, many folks are now embracing the Obama last two years and looking back on them wistfully and otherwise. Will America miss Obama when he’s gone? 

After leaving office, Obama may enjoy an unusually strong surge in support. His presidency makes a potentially great story: the first African-American in the White House, who helped the country recover from recession and ended two wars. Obama’s tale fits neatly into the overarching American narrative of expanding liberty. That rosy story has been lost amid the grinding business of government. But after 2016, hope and change could make a comeback. To support Obama after 2016 will be to embrace racial progress, to feel good about one’s country and oneself.

And Obama may also benefit from the Republican mid-term victories in 2014. If the GOP overreaches, Obama could leave office looking like the guardian of moderation.

Obama has been a good president. But he could be a great ex-president. With his intelligence, calmness, and good humor, together with his strong and attractive family, he’s a natural fit for the roles of memoirist, humanitarian, professor, and elder statesman.

By the end of the decade, Obama’s personal approval ratings could be 60 percent or higher. Historians may place him toward the top of the all-star rankings. Interestingly, more people may claim they voted for Obama than actually did vote for him. Pollsters routinely find that people misreport their behavior in a bid for social desirability. In the 1964 presidential election, for example, Lyndon Johnson won a crushing victory over Barry Goldwater. Afterward, the number of Americans who admitted voting for Goldwater was 6 percent shy of the real figure. If there’s a wave of Obama nostalgia, expect some non-voters, or even John McCain and Mitt Romney supporters, to say they backed the first African-American president.

Of course, none of this is set in stone. The depth of the nation’s love affair with post-presidential Obama will hinge on the next two years.

Many think that all he has to do is avoid being Dubya.

President Obama delivers his penultimate State of the Union address on Tuesday — a speech that is expected to set the course for his work with the newly GOP-controlled Congress over his final two years in office.

And unavoidably, talk will turn to Obama’s legacy and where he stands. (Already, New York Magazine has run a feature asking 53 historians what Obama must do to cement his legacy.)

While Obama has certainly been battered over his six years, he can at least say this: He’s in considerably better shape than his predecessor, George W. Bush, heading into the home stretch.

While Obama’s and Bush’s numbers rivaled each other for the better part of the middle of their presidencies — complete with hard-fought reelection races — Obama in recent months has differentiated himself from the tail end of the Bush years, keeping his approval rating steadily above 40 percent.

I’m not sure watching the polls is the answer.  Anyway, Tuesday is the SOTU and we’ll be here with live blogging.  And guess which loon is giving the Republican rebuttal?  It’s Senator Castrate-a-Hog!!   Iowa Senator Joni Ernst Michelle Bachmann on steroids so this should be a whole lotta fun!  Will she look as crazed as Bachmann?  As incoherent as Jindal? As thirsty and boring as Rubio?

Sen. Joni Ernst will deliver the Republican rebuttal to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address on Tuesday night, thrusting her into a prominent role that has proved challenging to previous GOP speakers.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday pegged Ernst, an Iowa Republican elected in November, for the nationally prominent speaking role.

In picking Ernst, McConnell, R-Ky., and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, emphasized her commitment to the middle class and suggested her remarks would focus on GOP efforts to address middle-class families’ needs.

“Sen. Ernst’s life is a quintessential ‘only-in-America’ story,” Boehner said in a statement. “She built a campaign by listening to the people of Iowa and focusing on their priorities, especially jobs and our still-struggling economy.”

She basically wasn’t the democratic candidate who was caught telling trial lawyers he was one of them and was going to Washington to represent them.  That sort’ve thing calls for a good old horse whipping in Iowa.  My guess is she’ll be a one term Senator if she says all the loonie crap she spouted on the campaign trail.  She’s cornfield Snookie!

Anyway, things are changing.  Let’s just hope it’s for the better eventually!

What’s on your reading and blogging list today?