The Constitution has the force of law in the United States. The Declaration of Independence, great document though it is, does not. But that didn’t stop Judge Arenda Wright Allenfrom citing the Declaration of Independence in striking down Virginia’s definition of marriage as only being between one man and one woman.
“Our Constitution declares that ‘all men’ are created equal. Surely this means all of us,” Judge Allen wrote on the first page of her opinion. That line opens the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence and appears nowhere in the Constitution. The line, in which Thomas Jefferson, with signature flourish, borrowed the words of theorist John Locke: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Wright Allen is an Obama appointee, which given the quality of his recent ambassadorial appointments, might go a long way to explaining how a federal judge cannot discern between the Constitution — law — and the Declaration of Independence — not law. It’s very significant in the nation’s history and in the history of humanity, but it is not the law of the land.
The coda on all this is coming soon enough. Polls say a slim majority support redefining marriage. Actual votes tend to say that a majority object. Judges are gonna do that judges are gonna do, and marriage as we know it will be…changed. That’s where this is headed. We’ll either privatize marriage, having no real idea what that means, or we’ll push churches out of marriage, having no feel for the consequences of that, or we’ll just abolish it, or the state will take total control of it — the state being the federal government, in this case, as no state will be allowed to have any arrangement that does not satisfy the most extreme twisting of what was a sacrament easily understood by all.
What shape the family takes in the post-marriage future is anyone’s guess. What happens to faith in America is anyone’s guess, too, but it’s not out of bounds to expect that once this demand is met, others will be invented. The left have collectively proven that they’re not a movement that rests on its laurels. It attacks, accuses others of doing the attacking when they’re really just defending the status quo ante, and when it wins it launches a new attack on something else from another angle.
And if you object or attempt to stop the judicial tanks rolling over 5,000 years of tradition and law, Kirsten Powers will appoint herself pope and excommunicate you. Consider yourself warned.
This is despicable and NOT Christian –> Kansas House passes bill allowing refusal of service to same-sex couples http://t.co/vnOhwBhRHT
— Kirsten Powers (@kirstenpowers10) February 14, 2014
No standard can possibly include every single person and every single permutation of life. It can’t be done. Standards rule some things in and other things out — otherwise, they’re not standards. The courts are trying to rewire society without any clear annunciation of where they intend to take things, but some advocates of the great overturning have been kind enough to offer a hint. They want every possible permutation of “family” recognized, every objection to same penalized — both with the full force of law. They want more than Powers angrily tweeting at people. They want the state unsettling settled law and codifying confusion.
Liberals are fond of declaring that all of their policy preference are “for the children,” until you talk about marriage, which is mostly about the welfare of children. Then the welfare of children takes second or third fiddle to the whims of adults and imperial courts.
Happy Valentine’s Day…
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