Free Republic

It’s probably difficult to grasp the jubilance of the six gay couples who prodded a judge in Polk County, Iowa, to strike down the state’s gay marriage ban last week. “This is kind of the American dream,” one plaintiff in the case told The Des Moines Register. “It’s pure elation — I just cannot believe it.” After the 2004 election, though, such elation is somewhat perplexing. After all, it was the Massachusetts Supreme Court’s 2003 decision to legalize gay marriage that set off a national movement to ban gay marriage via state constitutional amendments. The movement succeeded not only in...

Presidential hopefuls seeking to win conservative voters were quick to voice criticism of an Iowa county judge’s ruling to allow gay “marriage” in his county despite the state’s ban on same-sex civil “marriage.” Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney was the first to denounce the decision by Polk County Judge Robert Hanson, who last Thursday ruled that the state’s decade-old same-sex “marriage” ban violated the couples’ constitutional rights. Romney even voiced support of a federal ban on same-sex “marriage.” “The ruling in Iowa is another example of an activist court and unelected judges trying to redefine marriage and disregard the will...