Saturday, September 26, 2015

Federalism and SSM

i) The Constitution is silent on marriage. There's no enumerated Constitutional right to homosexual marriage. After all, the Constitutional doesn't even say heterosexual marriage is a Constitutional right.

According to the 9th and 10th amendments, that means any legal or civil right to marriage must be enacted at the state level:

Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

For the Supreme Court to decree a Constitutional right to homosexual marriage violates Federalism. That falls outside the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. That's a state issue.

ii) At best, the Supreme Court might strike down anti-miscegenation laws based on the 14th amendment. At least in that instance there's a general Constitutional principle in play: the 14th amendment was designed to overrule state laws discriminating against blacks.

iii) Furthermore, even if a given state passed a statue legalizing homosexual marriage, it would have to include religious exemptions. For state and federal laws don't nullify the first amendment. State and federal laws cannot violate the civil liberties accorded citizens in the first amendment. In case of conflict, the Bill of Rights takes precedence.

iv) That's true for private citizens and public employees alike. Surrending your Constitutional rights is not a condition of gov't employment.

4 comments:

  1. Would you agree that the reasoning for the ruling on sustaining same sex marriages was the civil right of the "person" without distinction?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's like saying all persons have a Constitutional right to own a Lamborghini.

      Delete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Geeesh I should proof read my comments before I push publish.

    Well, yes, but I was asking your opinion as to "why" five Justices went against the originalism espoused by some on the Court while others are in favor of a "living" constitution. For these Justices to do so one has to agree they gave into and caved in to a doctrine of demons and had little to no regard for Biblical principles that applied to the internal framework of the framers of the Constitution. There was a time and I know you know this well that the Constitution was purposefully written with exclusions in mind and quite frankly purposefully in my view. Women and blacks and Indians were probably foremost in their reasoning. These framers faced with the reality of their time were highly intelligent men who's lives were at stake.

    The Court's decision, in part, had to have been with utter disregard for God and the Word of His Grace which defines at least for women a lesser role in rule but not in importance when it comes to the makeup of the Biblical Will of family. And besides just as one Justice said to another, George Washington wasn't thinking about the internet back then to which the response was swift, I knew that! The original "values" of the Constitution have changed!

    And saying all persons have a Constitutional right to own a Lamborghini is also to say, is it not, that the next fight will be the right of the "person" to marry their dog or cat or make polygamy legal in all fifty states and when that happens then it will be safe for those three young Thai men I read about who recently married each other in Thailand at the same wedding ceremony to safely apply for residency and citizenship in the United States and be accepted and treated with equal rights and protections afforded them under the now new interpretation of the 14th Amendment..

    It seems to me the following verses are very apropos for True Believers in the United States. This Truth has not changed. It just seems the evil at hand is blatantly increasing and is more and more out in the open and overcoming:::>

    Eph 5:11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.
    Eph 5:12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.
    Eph 5:13 But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible,
    Eph 5:14 for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."
    Eph 5:15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,
    Eph 5:16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

    ReplyDelete