But, the children...

Justice Kennedy: …We have five years of information to weigh against 2,000 years of history or more.
On the other hand, there is an immediate legal injury—or legal what could be a legal injury, and that’s the voice of these children. There are some 40,000 children in California, according to the Red Brief, that live with same sex parents, and they want their parents to have full recognition and full status. The voice of those children is important in this case, wouldn’t you think?


This argument is full of rhetoric and definitely was attention-grabbing and memorable compared to other arguments which would have rhetoric but not as strong of a combination between logos and pathos that created this solid point.  Justice Kennedy of the Supreme Court is directing his point to Mr. Cooper, who is arguing that Proposition 8 being upheld. Though Justice Kennedy should generally remain unbiased, it is clear that he is, in fact, trying to persuade while masking it as offered information to include in the case. Obviously, it couldn’t be said outright because they were in the courtroom before the world that is waiting to hear the outcome of the case and the justices are expected to remain open minded to various points of view. These lines incorporate a lot of logos and pathos, among other devices to underhandedly refute Mr. Cooper’s argument, while also revealing Justice Kennedy’s stance on the topic.

One thing that really stood out to me was the logos that build up his argument. He talks about the 40,000 children that live with same sex parents and that really put it in perspective as to how many kids were living in this situation legally. Of course, the true device here was the pathos. Pathos emitted from this point strongly as the courtroom was encouraged to “think of the children” and how they wanted their parents to be given the same rights as other kids’ parents.

Kennedy is warranting that the children are happy in their households and do in fact want their parents’ marriage to be recognized by the state, however he doesn’t entirely back that up with facts, except that there are 40,000 children and that the sociological information is new.  His tone is almost demeaning when he readdresses Mr. Cooper as “the voice of those children are important, don’t you think?” because it almost suggests that Cooper wasn’t able to take that into consideration for himself. That being said, Kennedy generally was stirring up a lot of pathos and likely made some people reconsider their stance. This argument really stuck in my mind because children weren’t brought up too much previously in the court case and Kennedy brings it in full force. The concept of “the voice of the children matters” truly seeks to persuade and though it isn’t actually said it is clear that it was intended to stir up the emotions of the courtroom.