Write to the Point
The ink was barely dry on the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 26 decision guaranteeing same-sex marriage as a constitutional right when the backlash against the ruling began.
The most laughable of these came from Republican presidential aspirant Sen. Ted Cruz, who criticized the decision along with a ruling the previous week upholding the federal government subsidy of the Affordable Care Act as “judicial activism.” Cruz said he planned to introduce a constitutional amendment subjecting a “lawless” Supreme Court to intermittent reelection.
It’s laughable because if the decisions had been reversed, i.e. the court had ruled against same-sex marriage and the ACA’s federal subsidies, Cruz would have likely touted the wisdom of an independent and thoughtful judicial body.
It’s funny how court decisions are viewed. If it goes your way, well that’s how our Constitution is supposed to work, but if it goes the other way, well it’s time to light the torches and go get those “lawless” judicial activists.
The reaction that was more unsettling, and proof of how much further the cause of gay, lesbian and transgender equality has to go, came from county clerks in states such as Kentucky and Texas who have refused to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian applicants. The clerks based their decision on their adherence to their interpretation of biblical principles together with the Constitution’s Establishment Clause that prohibits government from establishing a religion or the free exercise thereof.
In Kentucky’s Casey County, county clerk Casey Davis said he is prepared to face jail time rather than issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, “If that’s what it takes to express freedom of religion.”
Davis’ comments come for the July 10 article “Christian County Clerk Refuses Orders to Issue Sodomite ‘Marriage Licenses;’ I Will Lean on the Lord’” from the website Conservativeangle.com; which is linked from the website Freedom Outpost (Don’t Tread on Us) and referenced in posts on similar websites.
In decrying the court’s decision, several posts claim the Supreme Court does not make the laws. That is a responsibility falling to Congress.
While that’s true, that’s a misread (deliberately?) of the decision authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy. The decision is based upon the majority’s interpretation — which is what the Supreme Court is supposed to do, interpret, and did in this case — of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.
That amendment says several things, but pertinent here is language prohibiting states from enforcing “any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
The court’s ruling then, in a very abbreviated nutshell, is that any state law denying same-sex couples the right of marriage granted to opposite-sex couples is a state-sanctioned denial of equal protection under the laws of this land.
There’s obviously more to it and the argument on both sides will continue for years.
But county clerks such as Davis who base their decision denying same-sex marriage licenses are on very contentious ground. Saying they are exercising their freedom of religion by practicing their religious beliefs raises many questions.
The Bible does warn against homosexual relations, saying, “it is an abomination.” But the Bible says many, many things, many of which none of us practice. For an interesting take on this, read Salon Magazine writer A.J. Jacob’s book “The Year of Living Biblically.”
One thing the Bible says that I wish we’d practice more of is the good old “Golden Rule: So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets,” as written in the New International Version.
The key for me is the clause, “So in everything.” That’s not vague. It means before we engage in any interaction with another human being, we need to stop, ask and truthfully answer a question.
“If the tables were reversed, would I be OK with how I am about to treat someone else?”
From my perspective, the ink is pretty dry on this biblical commandment.
John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.
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