New York and Georgia courts rebuff gay marriage
Two state Supreme Courts rejected arguments to overturn state laws banning gay marriage.
In Georgis, there was no surprised because it's a state where 75% of the people voted for the consitutioinal amendmennt limiting marriage to a man and a woman.
In New York, however, the blow seems crushing. New York is the big liberal state we hoped we were going to bag, but the court any change in the state's law should come from the state Legislature, Judge Robert Smith wrote. The decision said lawmakers have a legitimate interest in protecting children by limiting marriage to heterosexual couples. It also said the law does not deny homosexual couples any "fundamental right" since same-sex marriages are not "deeply rooted in the nation's history and tradition."
I can its point, but I'm not sure I buy the fundamental right argument. True, gay marriage is not embedded in our history and tradition, but before they were established, neither were women's sufferage or equality for blacks.
Sometimes rights take large leaps forward, not because tradition dictates, but because time does. Sometimes a culture evolves enough to realize it has been doing injustice and sees fit to rectify it, despite what tradition says.
I can't think of one of those major changes that we have made that has been a wrong decision. Well, except for Prohibition, but then that wasn't an issue of rights, it was an issue of morality being forced upon a nation.
The link: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GAY_MARRIAGE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
In Georgis, there was no surprised because it's a state where 75% of the people voted for the consitutioinal amendmennt limiting marriage to a man and a woman.
In New York, however, the blow seems crushing. New York is the big liberal state we hoped we were going to bag, but the court any change in the state's law should come from the state Legislature, Judge Robert Smith wrote. The decision said lawmakers have a legitimate interest in protecting children by limiting marriage to heterosexual couples. It also said the law does not deny homosexual couples any "fundamental right" since same-sex marriages are not "deeply rooted in the nation's history and tradition."
I can its point, but I'm not sure I buy the fundamental right argument. True, gay marriage is not embedded in our history and tradition, but before they were established, neither were women's sufferage or equality for blacks.
Sometimes rights take large leaps forward, not because tradition dictates, but because time does. Sometimes a culture evolves enough to realize it has been doing injustice and sees fit to rectify it, despite what tradition says.
I can't think of one of those major changes that we have made that has been a wrong decision. Well, except for Prohibition, but then that wasn't an issue of rights, it was an issue of morality being forced upon a nation.
The link: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GAY_MARRIAGE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Comments