The justices of the U.S. Supreme
Court (SCOTUS) will hear two-and-a-half hours of oral arguments in April,
followed by a ruling on same-sex marriage before the term ends in late June,
according to USA Today.
“The people and their elected
representatives should deliberate and vote about marriage policy — not
unelected judges — and they should make policy that serves the common good by
reflecting the truth that marriage is the union of a man and woman,” said Dr.
Ryan Anderson of the Heritage Foundation and co-author of the book – “What Is
Marriage? Man and Woman: A
Defense.” He added that redefining
marriage to make it a genderless institution fundamentally changes marriage. “It teaches that mothers and fathers are
interchangeable.”
Central to the case are two
questions:
1. Whether states are required to
license marriages between same-sex couples under the 14th Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution.
2. Whether the Amendment requires
states to recognize such marriages when licensed by other states.
Gay marriage is legal in 36-states
and the District of Columbia. Gay rights
groups want all 50-states to legalize same-sex marriage. “We've reached the moment of truth — the
facts are clear, the arguments have been heard by dozens of courts, and now the
nine justices of the Supreme Court have an urgent opportunity to guarantee
fairness for countless families, once and for all,” said Chad Griffin, President
of the Human Rights Campaign, in a statement.
However, Brian S. Brown, President
of National Organization for Marriage, said in a statement that it is time for
the 50-million Americans who stood for marriage in 30-states, to have their day
in court. “We are confident that the
Supreme Court has chosen the 6th Circuit case in order to affirm the finding of
the Appeals Court, just as it did in the cases of Windsor v. United States and Sabelius
v. Hobby Lobby,” Brown added. “We
will be watching this case closely and anticipate an eventual victory for the
democratic process, religious liberty, and the cherished institution of
marriage which forms the very bedrock of our society.”
Russell Moore, President of the
Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, also
released a statement, saying this case could potentially transform the cultural
landscape of America. “We should pray
for the Court, that they will not seek to redefine marriage,” he said. “Marriage was not created by government
action, and shouldn’t be re-created by government action. Even more than that, we should pray for
churches who will know how to articulate and embody a Christian vision of
marriage as the one flesh union of a man and a woman in the tumultuous years to
come.”
Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of
Liberty Counsel, said marriage is an institution older than the Constitution. “Marriage is a natural bond that society or
religion can only ‘solemnize.’”
Alliance Defending Freedom said the
people of every state should remain free to affirm marriage as the union of a
man and a woman in their laws. “Consistent
with the Supreme Court’s 2013 Windsor decision, which said that ‘states have
the essential authority to define the marital relation,’ the 6th Circuit
rightly concluded that the Constitution does not demand that a new view of
marriage be judicially imposed on everyone,” ADF Senior Counsel Austin R.
Nimocks said in a statement. “We are
hopeful the Supreme Court will uphold the freedom of the people to affirm
marriage.”
This is Roe v. Wade (legalizing abortion) all over again … as the SCOTUS is
poised to invent a new right to same-sex marriage found nowhere in the
Constitution. What is in the
Constitution is the Founder’s checks and balances against this overreaching in
power. The Framers understood the tendency
of a branch of government to expand; and they empowered both Congress and the
States with the legislative tools necessary to avert the encroachment.
Listen: It is the duty of
legislatures to step up and limit the federal judiciary’s expansion of power –
particularly on marriage … a matter central to state sovereignty. Both Congress and the States should fulfill
their obligations to safeguard the Constitution and the American people against
usurpation in power by the SCOTUS over marriage. Congress should enact laws denying funding
and withholding jurisdiction from enforcement of any redefinition of marriage
by the federal judiciary. Congress has
repeatedly withdrawn power from the federal courts over many other topics,
ranging from Medicare reimbursement to welfare … and marriage is certainly no
less important an issue. Congress should
also exercise its special authority under Section 5 of the 14th Amendment to
clarify that States retain full authority to limit marriage between one man and
one woman. Unlike the first 10 Amendments
to the Constitution, which depend on the federal courts for enforcement, the 14th
– which contains the equal protection clause relied on by same-sex marriage
advocates – gives Congress the power to enforce its provisions against the
States.
Even economically, the costs of
same-sex marriage include billions in new entitlements, consumption of family
court resources, and lawsuits for alleged discrimination. The elected branches of federal and state
government, which retain the ‘power of the purse,’ should not have to foot the
bill for those costs, and the Constitution ensures that they can cut off the
money.
On January 22, 1973, a 7-2 majority
of the SCOTUS invented a new constitutional right to abortion, and many
politicians mistakenly thought that settled the issue. But the advantage in the polls formerly
enjoyed by the pro-abortion side has completely disappeared. Moreover, even the Court that had declared a
‘right’ to abortion subsequently held that Congress and the States retain power
to cut off money for abortion, and to regulate it. By the same token, States have full authority
to cut off money for the homosexual agenda today!
Rev.
Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain
(Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel
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