The “Strategic Defense of Marriage Act” idea
May 16th, 2008 by Bruno BehrendI often tell my audience that the slow, incremental movement leftward, particularly in terms of “social issues”, is a function of very clever strategy by the radical left. That strategy is basically to use courts to achieve what they cannot acheive at the polls.
The process in Roe v. Wade was instructive. Some states allowed abortions and others didn’t. How hard can it be to manufacture a “test case,” get a ruling where 2 circuits or two states disagree on an issue of fundamental rights, and jump to the Supreme Court?
This has always been the strategy of the promoters of Gay Marriage, and why not? It works for them, and their feeble “conservative opposition” is too stupid to use similar legal avenues to promote their issues. The next step in this process is will likely be for the left to set up a test case in some state, arguing that since gays on MA and CA have a right to marry, then a gay person in Illinois has the same right.
A court could rule that way, but they may also rule that marriage is left to the states to decide. Either way, two differing results sends the issue to the Supreme Court. Another test case coming down the pike in a few months will be that a gay couple married in CA will enter court in Arizona to adjudicate their divorce.
Here is where defenders of traditional marriage have an opportunity to be strategic in their own right. Rather than pass a law stating that AZ, UT or some other state can’t “rule” on such an issue - thus kicking the case to the Supreme Court - simply pass a law saying that all such matters CAN be adjudicated in that state, but using only the laws of the state where the couple married.
This seems like a simple stop-gap measure that slows the process of getting such a case to the SCOTUS, where marriage will eventually be ruled to be whatever some person (or thing) wants it to be. After gays get the ‘right’ to marry, it is only a matter of time before polygamists and “cross-species” pioneers attain the same rights.
Perhaps the best strategy for the defenders of traditional marriage is to cut to the chase, leapfrog the 5-10 years of “test cases,” and advocate for strong “contract laws” among individuals. Marriage is headed toward “anything you want it to be,” so why not strengthen the definitions of “what you want it to be” early.
For those conservatives who have been arguing that “gay marriage” will spell the end of “traditional marriage,” I can only say that we are all likely going to find out if they are right or wrong.
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