Posted on 06/26/2015 11:20:30 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, seizing the moment after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, called Friday for a Constitutional amendment that would allow the states to decide whether gay marriage should be legal.
Walker’s call came shortly after the high court ruled 5-4 that same-sex couples could marry across the country, overturning a number of state same-sex marriage bans.
The ruling was “a grave mistake,” the Republican governor said, touting his support for amending his state’s constitution “to protect the institution of marriage from exactly this type of judicial activism.”
“As a result of this decision, the only alternative left for the American people is to support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to reaffirm the ability of the states to continue to define marriage,” Walker said in the statement.
Walker’s statement put him directly at odds with one potential 2016 rival, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who said he didn’t support pursuing a constitutional amendment.
“[G]iven the quickly changing tide of public opinion on this issue, I do not believe that any attempt to amend the U.S. Constitution could possibly gain the support of three-fourths of the states or a supermajority in the U.S. Congress,” Graham said in his statement. “Rather than pursuing a divisive effort that would be doomed to fail, I am committing myself to ensuring the protection of religious liberties of all Americans.”
Such an amendment would face steep odds on Capitol Hill.
Correction: The original version of this story said, wrongly, that Walker was calling for a Constitutional amendment “defining marriage as being between one man and one woman.”
Of course he doesn't...
“Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) is calling for a Constitutional amendment to allow states to define marriage and strip the Supreme Court of its authority over the issue after the justices legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
“As a result of this decision, the only alternative left for the American people is to support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to reaffirm the ability of the states to continue to define marriage,” Walker, a likely 2016 contender, said in a statement.
The Supreme Court ruled Friday that every state must recognize same-sex marriage under the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.
Most of the Republican presidential candidates responded by blasting the court’s decision as overreach on a matter they say should be settled on a state-by-state basis. Walker, however, is the only contender to call for an amendment to the Constitution to enshrine into law a state’s right to determine whether gay marriage should be legal.
“The states are the proper place for these decisions to be made,” Walker said. “As we have seen repeatedly over the last few days, we will need a conservative president who will appoint men and women to the Court who will faithfully interpret the Constitution and laws of our land without injecting their own political agendas.”
Walker on Friday highlighted a vote he cast in 2006 to amend the Wisconsin constitution to “protect the institution of marriage from exactly this type of judicial activism.”
He said he recognized how difficult a process it is to amend the U.S. Constitution but that it should be encouraging to conservatives that the first time it ever happened was to protect the free exercise of religion.
“The First Amendment does not simply protect a narrow ‘right to worship,’ but provides broad protection to individuals and institutions to worship and act in accordance with their religious beliefs,” Walker said.
“I call on the president and all governors to join me in reassuring millions of Americans that the government will not force them to participate in activities that violate their deeply held religious beliefs,” he continued.
“No one wants to live in a country where the government coerces people to act in opposition to their conscience. We will continue to fight for the freedoms of all Americans.”
The Wisconsin governor is poised to enter the race for the GOP presidential nomination next month. He currently has a huge lead over the rest of the field in Iowa, which many attribute to his ability to appeal to grassroots conservatives and establishment-minded Republicans alike.”
Nice idea.....lip service.....will never get ratified....
I thought that was what the tenth was?
When was the last time a SCOTUS ruling supporting liberals was overturned by a constitutional amendment?
There are only two ways to change this. One is a massive revival. The other is a coup. I pray for the first, and fear the second.
Has he started the process in his state to get an amendment on the ballot or is he just blowing hot air....
We have one. It is what they used to justify it.
Meh, they’ll just declare the amendment “unconstitutional” at this point. Laws mean nothing anymore.
even if we had an amendment the SCOTUS would ignore it
I fear for my Republic! I fear that we are going the way of ALL the other great Civilizations of the past, the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Incas, Maya, just to name a few. They too came apart from the inside out & were taken over by a greater outside force/s. When do our so called leaders start declaring themselves above the law, their protection security staff will start wearing purple so we will know who their are, & we cal tell them apart from the rest of the so called internal security forces. We already have to pay tribute at least once a year to them who live apart from us peasants. And let us NOT forget what is taken from us when we purchase anything that we need for our daily lives.
Then we grew up learning that our causes would be heard in the fair & UNbiased courts, & that the so called judges would listen to both sides & also a jury of our peers our listen in and make their decisions heard before all. But the “Will of the People” was the most important & the last word on any subject. But now all it takes is 1 black robed priest [term from the days of old when they were the judges for the elite] to tell us on how the king/s & emperors want us to live.
The Country that I swore an oath to protect from all enemies both forgin & domestic NO longer stands! And it is every person for themselves [or with their family] It is ok to rape, rob, burn, or destroy anything you want all in the name of something, anything you want. As long as you can say that you were oppressed in some way.
So now I am calling for the implementation of Paragraph 2 of the Declaration of Independence;
“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.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.—Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States”
And that we hang every person who has helped cause these problems! Because tempers are short & memories are long. There will be NO appeal or reprieve, or pardon or parole, the judgment will be final! The ship of state is about to be righted & probably be the Veterans who will be the ones who right it, because we can NO longer trust those who make the laws or enforce them!
Will I be branded a traitor to the current regime? I know I will be. Will I be ridiculed, tormented, laughed at, mocked, more than likely. But to those of you who held make this mess of our country, I damn you ALL to the lowest reaches of the ancient Greek hells!
There will be a day of reckoning & you are not gonna like what you are going to get, whether in this life or the next! This I swear, before All Mighty GOD in Heaven.
Do the first, PRAY for the second
Like Ted Cruz has been doing for years. Welcome, Scott.
An amendment defining marriage is too confined, too narrow. Scott Walker’s solution via a constitutional amendment is written right here on Free Republic:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3304160/posts
“Such an amendment would face steep odds on Capitol Hill.”
Won’t pass.
The only very slim hope to get rid of gay marriage is
1)Have a Congress that will pass a federal ban (forget “state’s rights” it needs to be killed everywhere, period, cancer spreads)
2)A President that will sign it
3)A Supreme Court that will uphold it.
Marriage is either something that is a universal standard or it's whatever anyone says it is.
To claim that marriage is something that can be decided at the state level is pure hogwash. It's like defining human life at the state level.
A couple gets married in Massachusetts and drives across the country to California. Along the way, depending on what state they happen to be in at the time they are married, not married, married, etc.
He just issued a statement that his state is going to start issuing gay marriage licenses. There is no statute in that state that allows for it. IOW, if the Supreme Court declared their marriage laws unconstitutional, then they have no marriage laws at all.
He should just order the county clerks to stop issuing marriage licenses and direct anyone that wants some official acknowledgement of their union to apply at the Federal Building.
This decision has effectively ended Marriage as an institution. There is no reason for the State to issue any licenses. People apparently have the right to get married without government interference, so the government cannot force anyone to get a license and when the laws defining the terms under which a marriage license can be obtained have been declared unconstitutional, there is no law at all on the books regarding how, when, why and under what circumstance a marriage will be “authorized”.
Under this ruling Polygamy and Incest are effectively given the same status as traditional marriages.
> “even if we had an amendment the SCOTUS would ignore it”.
Not if an amendment was controlled and enforceable by the States:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3304160/posts
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