Barack Obama has issued a statement on yesterday’s California marriage ruling. Obama says that he “respects the decision of the California Supreme Court, and continues to believe that states should make their own decisions when it comes to the issue of marriage.” The first half of that statement amounts to an embrace of the California supreme court’s judicial activism—the court’s ruling deserves derision, not respect (except that minimal respect from California officials charged with implementing it)—and the second half is a not very artful effort to obscure that embrace. The only way to make sense of the second half is that Obama, at most, doesn’t care whether “states” make their decisions on marriage through democratic processes or through liberal judicial activist rulings that defy those processes.

Obama’s statement, of course, fits with his promise to nominate liberal judicial activists to the Supreme Court. If and when those justices further usurp the powers of American citizens to establish policies through their legislators, I’m sure that we can count on Obama to celebrate the fact that the “nation” is making its own decisions.