Today, the Supreme Court of the United Ststes released a ruling that stated, 9 to 0, that the city of Philadelphia cannot discriminate against a Catholic adoption agency because they won’t adopt to same sex couples.

The ruling itself is kind of expected. The 9 to 0 lineup of justices was not.

For those who are not familiar with the US Supreme Court (and that probably includes most Americans reading this too, because most Americans are ignorant, low information voters who think they’re intelligent and savvy), the court is made up of nine members. Their ideological makeup is thought to be well known (currently six of them are thought to be conservative, and three liberal) but in actuality it’s a bit more fluid than that. They sometimes vote along ideological lines, but sometimes they don’t. Today, they didn’t.

There is a push, currently, towards what is called “packing the court”. Because Democrats (our liberal party) are in control of the house of representatives (our lower house) and the presidency, and in nominal control of the senate, they have been tossing about the idea of adding more justices to “bring it into balance”. In practice, this means that they think the court is not going to rule how they want, so they want to add justices until it does. It’s a rather craven and ill advised political move, but frankly, today’s breed of Democrats are not known for their intelligence.

The justices, today, sent a strong message that court packing will not work.

The fact that all three “liberal” justices (Kagan, Breyer, and Sotomayer) voted with the “conservative” justices was a statement that even if they add thee or five justices, court packing is not going to guarantee the kind of outcome that they’re hoping for. It is a signal that when push comes to shove, the constitution is more important than voting in ideological lockstep.

I believe that the Democrats have received this message loud and clear. You can tell by how loudly they’re complaining.

Personally, I try to avoid gloating at political victories. They are fleeting and its really not a couth thing to do. But that said, I’m rather enjoying the liberal tears on this one. Not so much because of the ruling itself, but because the court just sent the unmistakable message that not only is packing the court a bad idea, that it, like everything else the Democrats and liberals are trying to do, is destined to fail. And that is reason to celebrate.