TPM Reporter Sahil Kapur caught up with Rob Reiner and former RNC chair Ken Mehlman waiting in line outside the Court this morning for today’s oral arguments and filed this quick report …
I just caught up with Rob Reiner and former RNC chair Ken Mehlman, both strong marriage equality supporters, at the front of the line before Supreme Court arguments on Prop 8.
“I’m looking forward to a great argument by Ted Olson who I know has done this many, many times and we feel really confident that he’s going to hit on all the points we need him to hit on, Reiner said. As for the national change in public opinion, he said, “The winds are starting to shift.”
I asked Melhman about the recent shifts by the RNC and Rob Portman in the direction of gay rights.
“I think it’s a microcosm for what’s happening around the country,” he said. “Families are sitting around the kitchen table and having conversations, and realizing that in their family are people that they care about and they love who happen to be gay. And they’re concluding that those people ought to have the same civil rights that they do.”
Both declined to speculate on the outcome or offer any opinions on which justices are the ones to watch.
“It’s very hard to predict what happens in a Supreme Court argument,” said Mehlman.
“There’s no way to read tea leaves,” said Reiner.
