If you don't keep up with some of the important cases that are coming through the Supreme Court you definitely should. Some great cases that are being decided are today are DOMA and Prop 8. For starters in the DOMA case the Defense of Marriage Act is being argued to be unconstitutional. The Defense of Marriage Act is a federal law that was signed Bill Clinton and stated that a marriage is between a man and woman only. It also stated that another state does not have to recognize same-sex marriage laws from another state. At this point the Supreme Court hasn't made a decision especially since they just had the oral arguments recently. With me being a political science major and having knowledge of the Supreme Court justices I can speculate what will happen. At this time it can go either way their four conservatives and four liberals with one moderate Justice Kennedy who’s often time the swing vote. Kennedy was the swing vote in a case where sodomy laws nationwide were outlawed. I can see him pulling in favor of helping declaring DOMA unconstitutional. However the court decides I personally feel that it should be struck down. Gay people have rights to and the federal government shouldn't be able to openly define what constitutes a marriage. Leave it to the states to define if marriage is between a man or woman or any sex. The picture I provided is of Justice Anthony Kennedy.
It's weird to me that some marriages are honored across state (or even national) lines. Take age requirements, for example. A married 15-year-old girl moves from Mexico to Texas. Her union is considered valid even though it would be illegal by our state laws because she is too young. A gay couple gets married in Mexico City, but their union is invalid in Texas and equally illegal by state laws.
ReplyDeleteIt rubs me the wrong way. Arguments about religion sound too much like those set forth to ban interracial relationships. Arguments about children needing two opposite-sex parents would seem to indicate that divorce should be outlawed, all couples finding themselves pregnant should immediately, by law, be forced to marry, etc.