SCOTUS To Decide: God’s Law or Man’s Law
We may be making progress in getting to the root of the conflict. The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) will likely eventually decide the fate of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), and in so doing, will decide which laws are supreme…….God’s or man’s.
When the Federal Appeals Court in Boston found on Thursday that DOMA, which defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, is unconstitutional because it denies federal benefits to lawfully married same-sex couples, it has helped to focus on the real conflict here between secularism and the Judeo-Christian values on which this country was founded and thrived.
Conservatives should not really be surprised that an appeals court in the liberal First Circuit has thrown out DOMA, especially given that the Obama administration announced that it deemed the law unconstitutional and would not defend it. It is just merely shocking to reflect on how far from our founder’s values we have already strayed.
The ruling would not take effect until SCOTUS has had an opportunity to review the law. The plaintiffs’ demand to receive federal tax and Social Security benefits will remain on hold pending any appeal.
In making the ruling, the court noted that SCOTUS has never said that the Constitution requires states to permit same-sex marriages. Therefore, their ruling in the Massachusetts case was limited to arguments “that do not presume or rest on a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.”
But isn’t that where advocates of same sex marriage are taking this?
What the court in Massachusetts and courts in California that have also acted to strike down DOMA and bans on same sex marriage are really saying is that the government must divorce law from morality or moral standards.
If the argument that the law should be values-free holds, then that means any behavior consenting adults freely agree to should be legal. At some point, Americans must affirm that the law is a means of organizing society to reflect a certain set of values.
Conservatives must begin to make the case now that if the law and moral judgment are divorced, then rather than protecting society’s most fundamental institutions, such as marriage and other family issues, the law will become a means to repudiate and destroy the moral fiber of our country.
***Ed Randazzo, is a nationally syndicated author. He has been a conservative activist and consultant for over 30 years and is currently the Chief News Editor of Life and Liberty Media and Co-Producer of Liberty Today, a weekly television program seen on cable systems in most of South Dakota***
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