Why States Rights Don’t Currently Matter When It Comes To Gay Marriage

by John Hawkins | February 27, 2004 4:47 pm

One thing you’ll often hear from advocates of gay marriage and even utopian conservatives is that we should let the states make the decision about gay marriages, not the Federal government. I’m not surprised to hear some conservatives make that argument, but it is a rather extraordinary argument to hear from lefties who over the years have consistently pushed to override states rights and who have even mocked the concept as racist. But in any case, states rights are largely irrelevant at the present time when it comes to this issue. I say that because there’s a dirty little secret that most gay marriage advocates don’t want you to know about.

You see today, there is not a single state in the union where gay marriage can win at the ballot box. Even in states like Massachusetts and California, the voters do not approve of gay marriage.

So how can gay marriage become the law of the land? Well historically, how has the left proceeded to implement its agenda when the voters don’t want it? That’s right, with activist judges. That’s what’s happening in Massachusetts and it’s why Gavin Newsome can hand out documents no more legal than monopoly money and call them marriage certificates without being censured by the courts.

But what’s probably going to happen sometime within the next couple of years in Massachusetts, California, or in some other state, is that activist judges are going to overrule the legislature, overrule the voters, and make gay marriage legal in that state. Then someone in a state that has signed on to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is going to demand that their state allow gay marriage because of the full faith and credit clause[1] in the Constitution. Then that request is going to be denied because of DOMA.

At that point, a court case, or more likely, multiple court cases, are going to start working their way up the food chain. Then one of them is going to get all the way to the Supreme Court which up to this point has not ruled on DOMA. Then I think it’s highly like that DOMA is going to be ruled unconstitutional because it contradicts the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution. Then once the SCOTUS rules against DOMA, gay marriages will be allowed in every state even though the voters of every state disapprove.

This is not some fanciful scenario, it is in all likelihood what’s going to happen. That’s why we need a Constitutional Amendment and cannot just leave this issue to the states.

Because I believe that protecting marriage is so absolutely essential to the continued success of our country, I support a Constitutional Amendment that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman. But if that can’t get through Congress, and Constitutional Amendments are difficult to get approved under the best of circumstances, I would support a fall back Amendment.

That would be an Amendment to the full faith and credit clause to insure that the legislators of each state, not the courts, would make the decision on gay marriage and that their rulings would not impact other states. I think that kind of Amendment would have a much better chance of being passed because it would expose anyone who opposed it as zealots who want activist judges to impose their agenda on the rest of the nation.

But whatever we do, everyone should understand as it stands now, either the Federal Government or the SCOTUS is going to end up being the final arbiter of this issue, not the states.

Endnotes:
  1. full faith and credit clause: http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.articleiv.html

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