Posted on 08/19/2010 6:18:04 AM PDT by throwback
Together with my good friend and occasional courtroom adversary David Boies, I am attempting to persuade a federal court to invalidate California's Proposition 8—the voter-approved measure that overturned California's constitutional right to marry a person of the same sex.
My involvement in this case has generated a certain degree of consternation among conservatives. How could a politically active, lifelong Republican, a veteran of the Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush administrations, challenge the "traditional" definition of marriage and press for an "activist" interpretation of the Constitution to create another "new" constitutional right?
My answer to this seeming conundrum rests on a lifetime of exposure to persons of different backgrounds, histories, viewpoints, and intrinsic characteristics, and on my rejection of what I see as superficially appealing but ultimately false perceptions about our Constitution and its protection of equality and fundamental rights.
Many of my fellow conservatives have an almost knee-jerk hostility toward gay marriage. This does not make sense, because same-sex unions promote the values conservatives prize. Marriage is one of the basic building blocks of our neighborhoods and our nation. At its best, it is a stable bond between two individuals who work to create a loving household and a social and economic partnership. We encourage couples to marry because the commitments they make to one another provide benefits not only to themselves but also to their families and communities. Marriage requires thinking beyond one's own needs. It transforms two individuals into a union based on shared aspirations, and in doing so establishes a formal investment in the well-being of society. The fact that individuals who happen to be gay want to share in this vital social institution is evidence that conservative ideals enjoy widespread acceptance. Conservatives should celebrate this, rather than lament it.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
GOOD ARGUMEMNT. THANK YOU.
What you’re basically advocating for is to remove all man-written laws and replace them with the bible. Every judge, handed The Bible and told rule from this. Ok.....
So, one night you’re at home and someone breaks into your home. Fearful for your family, your own life or a simple desire to protect your items, you shoot the burglar and he’s dead.
The Bible says, Thou Shalt Not Kill and the burglar is dead, you’re arrested.
The Prosecutor looks at the Bible and reads Thou Shalt Not Kill and that the Bible calls for the death penalty for murders. The prosecutor charges you with Capital Murder and you face trial.
Your defense attorney tells the court that you were defending yourself, your home, your family and you were justified in taking a life.
The Jury looks at their guide, the Bible and see’s nothing about self-defense in there that the can find and all agree, you killed someone. They find you guilty.
The Judge, having received the juries verdict, approves of their verdict and from the Bibles sentencing guidelines sentences you to death. You’re taken from the court room, marched outside and executed. Justice has been served, God has been followed and society is safe, a murderer can not murder again.
What you are advocating is anarchy or a government like the Taliban. No thank you.
I would hope you do not need a lesson on “rule of the governed” or our Constitution to understand that WE give the Government the right to do anything.
To say the Government should not be involved in marriage is advocating either for what Gays want - and end to marriage in society or anarchy.
To believe that people will live by the rule of God is naive and wishful thinking. God’s laws have been with us since the beginning of time, written down for the last 2,000 years and yet people break his laws in every society, every generation, every second of the day.
While I do believe the Government has the right to, or even should, determine what a Religious organization does concerning marriage, I definitely want laws on the books that define marriage as a union between one man and one woman. From that definition other prohibitions to the union can and should be made. Anyone who does not would have to approve of a man marrying his 12 year old daughter since they want no laws governing marriage.
You are right — it’s the Alice in Wonderland tactic of “a word means what I want it to mean’ — it’s the first step in taking over reality and making it into something else.
they’re not gay they’re homosexuals.
their sham marriages is a step in their agenda and one only has to look at MA to see that and see what they have done and how they have closed down religious groups in adoptions or failing people on a bar exam because his religious belief does not advocate their sham marriages
first the Supreme @sshat BobJ and now a class of 2004 alum zot. Plus the usual newbie trolls. Is there a full moon? Activity is on the rise......
Hey Ted.
I know a man what wants to define marriages for himself, he wants to have more than one wife, can he?
Another idiot which has been fooled by queers because he probably became friends with one of them .
Conservatives had better get their act together and stop this crap.
One side of the line is a man with a woman, on the other side is anything and every argument they use can be used for any kind of sham marriage
I think he’s gay.
thank you for your post — I was about to make many of the same points. These pro-gay marriage people are not only wrong, they are ignorant as a bag a hair.
” Separation of church and state! Remember that? MARRIAGE is a religious thing, not a legal one “
Better tell that to the county clerk. And read post 124 regarding the rest.
I’m not trying to make the case that taking drugs is on a par with homosexuality, although I think it would be easy to come to that conclusion based on my comments. I do see them differently, but I also see them as contributory to our youth’s damnation.
I think legalization of homosexuality (if you will) and legalization of drugs would send the wrong messages to our youth. It’s one thing to do things knowing it’s wrong, and it’s another entirely to do it thinking it will be legal to do it in a few years anyway... so why not?
Customary dabbling becomes so much more than that, when the state goes on the record that it’s a normal adult activity.
How do you tell your kids something is wrong, when the government tells them it isn’t?
We’ve already got the government working on our kids with regard to homosexuality. Adding drugs to that mix concerns me a great deal.
Such as?
The founders refused to place anyone religion before another
Didn't read the links?
the even went so far as to explicitly forbid the government from doing it!
The Feds, not the states. This is Jeffersons model for government.
"The way to have safe government is not to trust it all to the one, but to divide it among the many, distributing to everyone exactly the functions in which he is competent....To let the National Government be entrusted with the defense of the nation, and its foreign and federal relations..... The State Governments with the Civil Rights, Laws, Police and administration of what concerns the State generally. The Counties with the local concerns, and each ward direct the interests within itself. It is by dividing and subdividing these Republics from the great national one down through all its subordinations until it ends in the administration of everyman's farm by himself, by placing under everyone what his own eye may superintend, that all will be done for the best." Thomas Jefferson
We are the greatest because we are the ONLY place on earth where Jews & Gentiles, Chistians & Pagans (and just about any other combination ...) live in relative harmony with each other because our system of government does NOT prefer any one over the other!
It is a pagan god that has no morals or authority that usurps authority never given but taken through deception that attempts to produce Nirvana here on earth.
That is actually an argument that SUPPORTS my position!
You are correct the Creator is not going to force anyone to LOVE, HONOR, and OBEY His commands during this flesh journey.... That is and will always be the GOD given freedom of each and every individual... Judgment day though there will be no lusting flesh it will all be with full knowledge as to how each and every one of us make an informed decision.
No arguments from me on that point!
There is a clear agenda that comes along with gay marriage and as you easily found isn’t hidden.
I’ve found most people on our side of the aisle who believe in a live and let live philosophy have no idea what the true reasoning behind pushing gay marriage is.
Honestly, I don’t care if two gays want to take part in civil unions in order to benefit from inheritance, insurance, property rights etc. It is the reasoning behind pushing for redefining marriage and the agenda that would follow that I’m completely against.
Those on our side need to remind themselves of one thing - the left lies. They can not tell the truth about their agenda or else society rejects their position. As has happened in every state that gay marriage has been put to a vote. The left MUST lie and it’s our “job” to expose those lies.
Thanks for finding those quotes....
The idea that there are three sides to to truth and the “real truth” is necessarily located at the midpoint of what I say and what you say is a ludicrous canard. If I am wrong, or lying ( say, a holocaust denier) and you are upholding a fact (say, you;re a holocaust survivor) how is the truth located in the middle?
The idea that there are three sides to to truth and the “real truth” is necessarily located at the midpoint of what I say and what you say is a ludicrous canard. If I am wrong, or lying ( say, a holocaust denier) and you are upholding a fact (say, you;re a holocaust survivor) how is the truth located in the middle?
there does exist a need on some level to codify the institution, or at least there was, but today, that law is what is being used to bludgeon all religions into bowing to ceasar, rather than being convicted of 'hate' by following their Scripture...
at this point youre both right, for two very different reasons...IMO...
” It is my belief that the call for legalizing drugs, and the movement to solidify societal acceptance of homosexuality, unwittingly wind up doing pretty much the same thing, destroying the next generation. “
The legalization of drugs would be a disaster. Alcohol is bad enough, but since only about 10% of users get hooked, it is somewhat tolerable. Illegal drugs serve one purpose...to get ripped.
It is no accident that pedophiles often use drugs to render a child helpless.
Can you even read? Where exactly did I advocate a theocracy?
I have said that government has no role in defining a religious institution - and you take that to mean I advocate ONE specific Bible over others?
WOW!
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