Free Republic

The Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage settled little. It merely launched a bigger struggle over the definition of marriage. Now, resistance to Obergefell v. Hodges will join Roe v. Wade in becoming another, long-tailed comet moving across the socio-political skies of America. A third, landmark Supreme Court initiative waits over the horizon. It will involve the 2nd Amendment. Perhaps not soon, but coming. Following Obergefell v. Hodges, much discussion now centers on the potential loss of tax-exempt status to churches that resist. Same-sex marriage zealots will look for opportunities to cement the Court’s decision by forcing churches, through the...

In the wake of last week’s “landmark” decision by the U.S. Supreme Court mandating nationwide acceptance of gay marriage, some states have begun pushing back, essentially telling Uncle Sam what he can do with his high court ruling. In Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton has issued an opinion stating that county clerks, judges and justices of the peace could refuse to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, noting that the SCOTUS ruling did not abolish religious liberty. “This newly minted federal constitutional right to same-sex marriage can and should peaceably coexist with longstanding constitutional and statutory rights, including the rights...

Without question, the Supreme Court’s decision to impose homosexual marriage as a constitutional right is disappointing. There was a time when the Court rightly bestowed a great respect for America’s Christian heritage and to the Creator on which the Declaration of Independence was based. Sadly, those time are passed. As Christians, we know God, in His great wisdom, established the institution of marriage as only between one man and one woman. Not even the Supreme Court can change that.Because of judicial activism, Christian ministries can and should take steps to protect their religious freedoms. No longer can even churches believe...

WASHINGTON — In 2004, Barack Obama cited his Christian faith while explaining his opposition to same-sex marriage. "What I believe, in my faith, is that a man and a woman, when they get married, are performing something before God, and it's not simply the two persons who are meeting," he said. Eight years later, he cited his faith again when he became the first sitting president to endorse marriage equality. "When we think about our faith, the thing at root that we think about is not only Christ sacrificing himself on our behalf, but it's also the Golden Rule, you...

There is no question that the media, political, and cultural push for gay marriage has made impressive gains. As recently as 1989, voters in avant-garde San Francisco repealed a law that had established only domestic partnerships. But judging by the questions posed by Supreme Court justices this week in oral arguments for two gay-marriage cases, most observers do not expect sweeping rulings that would settle the issue and avoid protracted political combat. A total of 41 states currently do not allow gay marriage, and most of those laws are likely to remain in place for some time. Even should the...

A political legislature known as the U.S. Supreme Court held a purely-legislative hearing about homosexual marriage on March 26. The hearing debated raw policy preferences and speculated about benefits for and against homosexual marriage. To anyone trained in the law, it violated almost every law and rule of the U.S. Supreme Court. Only a lawyer willing to 'tell' on his profession can reveal how disturbing was the High Court's oral argument in Hollingsworth v. Perry. The case concerns the constitutionality of California's Proposition 8 referendum defining marriage as the joining of a man and a woman. Generally liberal California voted...

Liberal activists respect neither natural law nor positive law. What God and the people have joined together, they feel perfectly free to put asunder. Marriage, by their lights, is a purely human institution that they can make and remake at will. This unholy cause has been on display during Holy Week at the Supreme Court, where activists, such as Hillary Rosen, declared loudly that “procreation is not the point of marriage.” Apparently Jesus Christ was mistaken on this point. He seemed to think that marriage had to do with the two sexes coming together and becoming “one flesh,” a biological...

In our sometimes misguided efforts to expand our freedom, selfish adults have systematically dismantled that which is most precious to children as they grow and develop. That’s why I am now speaking out against same-sex marriage.... This isn’t the first time our society has undefined marriage. No-fault divorce, instituted all across our country, sounded like a good idea at the time. Its unintended consequence was that it changed forever the definition of marriage from a permanent relationship between spouses to a temporary one. Sadly, children became collateral damage in the selfish pursuits of adults. Same-sex marriage will do the same,...

If the Supreme Court can find its way through a dense procedural thicket, and confront the constitutionality of the federal law that defined marriage as limited to a man and a woman, that law may be gone, after a seventeen-year existence. That was the overriding impression after just under two hours of argument Wednesday on the fate of the Defense of Marriage Act.

Rush Limbaugh: Same-sex marriage will be legal nationwide By Chris Moody, Yahoo! News | The Ticket – 57 mins ago On his radio program on Wednesday, conservative host Rush Limbaugh predicted that same-sex marriage would eventually be made legal "nationwide," regardless of how the Supreme Court rules in cases on the subject later this year. From the show transcript: A lot of people have no personal animus against gay people at all. It's instead, you know, a genuine, I don't know, love/respect for the things they believe define this country as great. They get up every day and they see...

The only question worth asking about gay marriage is whether anyone on the left would care about this crusade if it didn't come with the privilege of bulldozing another civilizational institution. Gay marriage is not about men marrying men or women marrying women, it is about the deconstruction of marriage between men and women. That is a thing that many men and women of one generation understand but have trouble conveying to another generation for whom marriage has already largely been deconstructed. The statistics about the falling marriage rate tell the tale well enough. Marriage is a fading institution. Family...

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on two of the most critical cases of our time. Today, March 26, attorneys will make the pitch both for and against California’s Proposition 8. This, of course, is the Golden State’s pro-marriage amendment. It maintained the timeless definition of natural marriage as between man and wife. Then, on Wednesday, March 27, the high court will consider the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), passed in 1996 with overwhelming bipartisan support and signed into law by then President Bill Clinton. It, likewise, secured the definition of legitimate marriage...

Justice Sonia Sotomayor was questioning former U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson, a pro-gay marriage Republican. She brought up a very interesting question during the exchange: If gay marriage is legal, what about polygamy? Sotomayor asked, "If you say that marriage is a fundamental right, what state restrictions could ever exist?" before referencing "polygamy and incest among adults," as reported by Matt Canham of the Salt Lake Tribune. The argument is an illustration of a broader issue about the culture of American society. To agree that gay marriage is indeed protected by the "equal protection" clause in the Constitution, wouldn't the...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: You know, I got a note from a friend last night and this is a really good point. This guy, he was in California about the same time I was. I was in Sacramento from 1984 through 1988. I remember -- and I'm sure all of you who were of adult years paying attention back then, which seems like yesterday to me -- the eighties seem like yesterday to me. It does not seem like ancient history. It's tough for me to realize, but, to a lot of people, the '70s and '80s are ancient history. I...

WASHINGTON — A majority of the justices on Wednesday questioned the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996, as the Supreme Court took up the volatile issue of same-sex marriage for a second day. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, widely considered the swing vote on the divided court, joined the four liberals in posing skeptical questions to a lawyer defending the law, which defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman for the purposes of more than 1,000 federal laws and programs. “The question is whether or not the federal government under a federalism system has...

The Supreme Court's conservative justices on Wednesday were sharply critical of President Obama's approach to a federal law on same-sex marriage. Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder decided in 2011 that the federal Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional. They quit defending it in the courts, but directed federal agencies to continue to comply with the law. Conservatives on the Supreme Court criticized that approach Wednesday during oral arguments over whether DOMA is constitutional. “I don't see why he doesn't have the courage of his convictions,” Chief Justice John Roberts said of Obama's decision to continue following the law, even...

March 27, 2013 If marriage is a right, then the government needs to start hooking people up By DAN CALABRESE - The Office of the Public Spouse.I can't totally take credit for this one because it came about in a discussion between Rob and me yesterday. Those discussions, if you were to read them, would often present a rather disturbing look inside our two brains.Anyway, we both agree that gay marriage cannot be an equal rights issue for the simple reason that no one has a right to get married. Marriage is a union freely entered into between two parties....

This week’s Supreme Court hearings on same-sex marriage cases owe much to Lawrence v. Texas, the 2003 ruling that overturned anti-sodomy laws. However, the story behind Lawrence isn’t what many suppose. Anne Hendershott A cake for a same-sex wedding at Morfey's Cake Shoppe in Seattle in 2004 (CNS photo from Reuters) The recent endorsement of same-sex marriage by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came as no surprise. She joins a long list of politicians—mostly Democrats, but increasingly more Republicans—who claim to have been “recently” converted to the cause. Earlier this month her husband, the former President William Clinton, published...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I'm just waiting for the printer to spit something out here. It's about the chief justice. Here's the headline: "Chief Justice John Roberts Compares Gay Marriage To Forcing A Child To Call Someone 'A Friend.'" They have released the audio of the oral arguments now, and this is the story from Mediaite. "The optimism that Jean Podrasky, cousin of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, displayed when she told The Los Angeles Times that she 'trust(s) he will go in a good direction' in deciding whether same-sex couples have the right to marry may have been misplaced....

Supreme Court Decides Whether Of Not To Review Challenge Of California's Prop 8. This week the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on same California’s Prop 8 and a section of the Defense of Marriage Act which deals with benefits for same sex couples. Same sex marriage is front and center once again and I’ve heard some interesting arguments on how supporting government involvement in defining marriage is a “conservative” ideal. During the Sunday morning talk show circuit, former Bush communications adviser took the moderate position emerging within the GOP against American Values’ Gary Bauer. Nicole Wallace tried to argue...