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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2004-02-27

A Moment in the Sun

One of the local radio 'wits' posited the question today "What, exactly, are they (conservatives) protecting marriage from?" So, of course, I called in (under my nom de phone).

The answer is that we are not protecting marriage from anything; what we seek to protect is the rights of a community/state to decide standards within the community for itself, as decided on by the people through their elected representatives. When a small majority of the Mass. Supreme Judicial Court says that not only is a law passed by the legislature wrong, but that the legislature must write a new law a certain way, the judiciary has overstepped its rightful role in the proper scheme of things. And if I had any confidence that judges elswhere would uphold the Protection of Marriage Act signed into law by President Clinton, then this amendment would be unnecessary. Unfortunately, the judicial branch has taken upon itself to dictate the terms of the issue to the people, and have taken rightful role of the legislatures away from them. The only way to protect the correct role of the three-part nature of government may be through a constitutional amendment.

The conversation went on after that briefly, but the host had no answer for me. He tried to trick me into a trap of inconsistency, which failed.

After having to articulate this point, I may be coming around to the idea of supporting this amendment. In terms of controlling an activist judiciary, this may be the most effective way. And as much as I loath amending the Constitution for social policy reasons, somehow the judiciary has got to be put back in its box.

Let's say that my view on this issue may be evolving.
Posted by: Michael / 2/27/2004 11:49:00 PM

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