A warning to soc-cons.
Over at the Volokh Conspiracy Randy Barnett talks about membership in diverse coalitions. One comment in particular makes sense but only superficially. That comment is:
My own view on how to maintain the winning coalition is Grover Norquist's: the "leave-us-alone" strategy, which happens to fit our original Constitution (as amended). This entails leaving gay marriage (which I support) to the states...
Too late! Gay marriage is already spilled outside of the states. When Massachussets legalized same-sex marriage it set up a time bomb of federal proportions. In fact, I am surprised the legal bomb has not yet exploded.
What I see coming up are two same-sex spouses from Massachussetts moving into another stete. They then demand treatment as a married couple and when they do not get it, they run to the courts demanding the full-faith and credit clause of the Constitution be enforced. It will happen, when is the question.
This makes it a federal issue that state constitutions will not be able to resist. This means federal action must be taken to protect a state's decision on this topic. An federal marriage amendment should state the only marriages enforceable via full-faith and credit are man-woman unions. This does not stop any state from allowing same sex marriages in its jurisdictions, it stops one state from dictating to the other 49 what marriage should be.
My own view on how to maintain the winning coalition is Grover Norquist's: the "leave-us-alone" strategy, which happens to fit our original Constitution (as amended). This entails leaving gay marriage (which I support) to the states...
Too late! Gay marriage is already spilled outside of the states. When Massachussets legalized same-sex marriage it set up a time bomb of federal proportions. In fact, I am surprised the legal bomb has not yet exploded.
What I see coming up are two same-sex spouses from Massachussetts moving into another stete. They then demand treatment as a married couple and when they do not get it, they run to the courts demanding the full-faith and credit clause of the Constitution be enforced. It will happen, when is the question.
This makes it a federal issue that state constitutions will not be able to resist. This means federal action must be taken to protect a state's decision on this topic. An federal marriage amendment should state the only marriages enforceable via full-faith and credit are man-woman unions. This does not stop any state from allowing same sex marriages in its jurisdictions, it stops one state from dictating to the other 49 what marriage should be.
posted by Marcus Aurelius at 3:29 PM
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