I'd started to write something when I first saw this discussion, but I realized I was short on time - still am! - and had to come back later.
To jonn3's original question about same-sex marriage, I doubt the Trump Administration can do too much to change it, or at least not immediately, and I'm not sure if Trump would.
The five justices who were the majority in
Obergefell v. Hodges, the same-sex marriage decision, are all still alive and serving on the US Supreme Court. The late Justice Scalia whose passing created an open seat was in the minority on this decision. If someone who shares Scalia's views were appointed to replace him, he or she would go through the confirmation process in the US Senate.
So, what matters here is two things, and they are
not the immediate need to replace Justice Scalia.
The first is that Justice Kennedy, appointed by President Reagan, has become in today's context the moderate swing vote who decides among the others, with four Justices each to his right and his left. He remains on the Court.
The second is that both Justice Kennedy and liberal Justice Ginsburg are 80 years old or older. Justice Breyer, also counted among the liberals, is 78. How long they will serve and whether Trump will choose replacements who will be confirmed is unknown, along with what sort of replacements he would choose.
Recall that Trump made multiple conflicting statements in both the primaries and the general election. I don't expect him to feel bound by the list of possible Supreme Court nominees his campaign had released.
As I write this, the GOP will have 51 or 52 seats in the Senate in 2017, with Louisiana's "jungle primary" last Tuesday causing a runoff on December 10 to determine whether a Republican or a Democrat will hold that seat. There had been multiple Republicans and Democrats running along with Independents and a Libertarian.
Although the majority party can confirm a Supreme Court Justice with a majority vote, the incoming Republican majority will not have enough seats to prevent a possible filibuster by Democrats. As we saw with Ted Cruz awhile back, filibusters can be broken.
I sense we are beginning to see the "businessman" Trump backing away from some of the most extreme blustering statements he made in the primaries and general election campaign. He is a venal man who uses loud talk and vulgarity to attract attention, and he successfully mobilized a segment of America who felt forgotten, voiceless, and undervalued.
What we'll actually see from a President Trump remains to be seen. He has no personal allegiance to the Religious Right, although he used them to gain the Presidency.
I remember being surprised as a child when President Nixon, who made his career opposing Communism, opened détente with the Soviet Union and later visited Beijing. Later as a student of Government and Political Science I kept running into the saying, "Only Nixon could go to China."
Honestly, we truly and simply don't know and won't know until we know it.
Also, I don't think I need to pile on to the answers to trainnut. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, of course, but there is an appropriate time and place for it. Whether this moment and this virtual space is the best place is for each person to judge - and it isn't necessary to pile on with judgement, pro or com. To me it seemed overly harsh, but that's simply my own opinion.
I will add that the Freedom of Religion is only one of the Rights enumerated in our Bill of Rights. It's balanced against Freedom of Expression (i.e., "Speech"), Freedom of Association (i.e., "Assembly"), and other Constitutional provisions such as the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
Examples: Freedom of Religion does not give a husband permission to rape his wife. Freedom of Religion does not give a man permission to have multiple wives. Freedom of Religion does not give a man permission to force a child into marriage with him or with another man. I believe we saw all these come into play not too long ago with the controversies and prosecutions around the
FLDS Church.
I could write for hours, but I truly need to catch up on delayed other work.
~ Bob