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February 10, 2012
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Julie Deardorff : Researchers say antioxidants may not be that effective and could do more harm than good
Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
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Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
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Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
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Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
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Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
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Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
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Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
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Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
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Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
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Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
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January 17, 2012
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January 12, 2012
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January 11, 2012
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David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
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January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
May 23, 2008
/ 18 Iyar 5768
Obama and same-sex marriage
By
Rich Lowry
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Barack Obama might be the first major candidate for president to support same-sex marriage.
He won't say as much. His definition of a "new politics" is capacious enough to allow for pose and slipperiness (as long as he's the one engaged in them). But his stance on a California Supreme Court decision that ripped away any middle ground on the issue makes him operationally pro-gay marriage.
In California, a domestic-partnership law gives gay couples, in the words of the decision, "virtually all of the legal rights and responsibilities accorded married couples under California law." But that's not enough. Marriage must be redefined to include same-sex relationships. Any arrangement short of this is comparable to segregation: famously progressive California as Bull Connor's Alabama.
In a carefully hedged statement, Obama said he "respects the decision of the California Supreme Court." He respects a decision that disregarded the will of the people in California, as expressed by a 2000 referendum that defined marriage as between a man and a woman; he respects a decision that excoriated his own position of support for civil unions and (theoretical) opposition to same-sex marriage; he respects a decision that rejects the sort of political compromise he extols. It's like a professed abolitionist in 1857 saying he "respects" the Dred Scott ruling.
Obama's tone noticeably differed from John Kerry's in 2004. Kerry criticized the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling in favor of same-sex marriage and said he'd support a constitutional amendment banning it. In contrast, Obama patted the California court on the head and said nothing about a proposed referendum in the fall to amend the California Constitution to overrule the court. Obama makes Kerry look like a staunch cultural conservative.
If the California decision goes into effect in 30 days as is usually the practice thousands of gay couples will get married no matter what the public decides. California doesn't have a statute like the one in Massachusetts that prevents people from coming there from out of state for same-sex marriages. Many of the newlyweds will be from elsewhere. They will return home, the seedbed for lawsuits to have their marriages recognized by their states.
Same-sex marriage promises to spread by judicial usurpation. What's to stand in its way? Obama opposes a federal constitutional amendment to define marriage as between a man and a woman. He opposes the federal Defense of Marriage Act that prevents states from having to recognize same-sex marriages from other states. And he supports activist judges of the sort who find the California court's reasoning congenial.
Obama is a soft-toned cultural warrior, wrapped in the blandishments of change and bipartisanship. Roe v. Wade was a crucial catalyst for America's ongoing kulturkampf; it imposed a policy of abortion on demand on the nation, stoking a ferocious backlash. The Supreme Court and its liberal cheerleaders who thought it could force their preferred social change faster than the democratic process were the cultural aggressors.
So it is now. States around the country are giving legal standing to same-sex unions, but the California court insists the change is not fast or far-reaching enough. The court argued again and again that withholding the word "marriage" from gay unions denies them "equal dignity and respect." The court thus demands moral approval for these unions, and does what open-minded people everywhere are supposed to abhor: impose its morality on people who disagree.
If opposition to same-sex marriage is equivalent to bigotry, religious groups that oppose it are purveyors of discrimination and deserve to be treated as such under the law. Down this road is a significant challenge to religious freedom. Roe eventually discredited blatant judicial activism, but the California decision serves to revive it. If it stands, it will again legitimize judges governing by fiat.
That will bail out evasive liberal politicians who fear being forthrigh governing by fiat.
t about their views and hope merely to step out of the way while judges impose them. For the cause of self-government, it's a disaster.
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© 2008 King Features Syndicate
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