Same-Sex Marriage and the “Phantom Menace”
Can you fisk this passage?
“All these state amendments are going to be struck down by federal judges,” said Matt Daniels, president of the Alliance for Marriage. “We’re in a race now — in a race between the democratic process in Kansas and other states and the federal courts.”
It’s actually quite a simple fisk: not a single “activist judge” who has made a pro-gay ruling has been a federal judge — they have all been state judges.
Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, California, even Hawaii all the way back in 1993. They were all state courts and state judges. Moreover, with one exception (Nebraska), the litigation now on the docket or being planned by groups like the heroes at Lambda Legal is all taking place at the state level, not federal. (Which of course makes sense: state constitutional issues must generally be litigated in state courts, with final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Lower federal courts generally have nothing to do with it.)
So why all the histrionics about federal judges? Simple: “federal” sells. You want a federal marriage amendment? Make a “federal case” out of it (sorry for the pun). Need some more ammunition in the federal judicial nomination crisis? Throw in some dire warnings about “those uppity gays.” State legislatures not always going your way? Bait-and-switch the issue to those distant and detached “federal judges.” Need a target, especially a target of “others”? Don’t focus on your own state’s judges — that might expose the contradiction, since local judges are, um, local. No, better to represent the issue as one of outsiders, even invaders, who threaten your local, corn-fed, god-fearing, “democracy trumps the Constitution” way of life.
It seems to me that lies equate with desperation. We see it relentlessly among those opposed to Social Security reform and now we’re starting to see it in the gay marriage debate. For all the milk-spilt crying about “backlashes” and “too much too soon,” the opposition seems to be increasingly nervous.
Good.
UPDATE: There’s also a California same-sex marriage case in federal court, but that’s because the plaintiffs are challenging the federal DOMA as well as California’s.
Similar Posts:
- On the Texas Same-Sex Marriage Ban Initiative
- Gay Marriage Update
- Another Democrat Waffles on Gay Marriage
- On the Nebraska Same-Sex Ruling
- New York Gay Marriage Ruling Imminent
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