Anti-gay marriage supporters have just filed papers asking the Supreme Court to rule on California’s Proposition 8, ironically citing the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment as the basis for keeping the ban on same-sex marriage.
Chris Geidner at Buzzfeed reports:
Specifically, they ask the court in a filing today to decide “Whether the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the State of California from defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman.”
Arguing that “[u]nique recognition of a unique relationship in no way disapproves or dishonors other relationships that the State has chosen to recognize differently,” the Proposition 8 proponents ask the court to take the case to correct the “manifest errors” of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and “to return to the People themselves this important and sensitive issue.”
This continues a troubling trend of conservatives and radical right wing extremists attempting to twist established law into a perverted form that the Founders and our forefathers never intended.
Section 1. of the Fourteenth Amendment reads:
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
If anything, it supports the right of same-sex couples to marry, not of states to deny them marriage.
This is a developing story — stay tuned.
Editor’s note: In 2009, almost three years to the day, I wrote “Does The U.S. Constitution Already Make Gay Marriage Legal?,” a highly-popular essay that made the case that the 14th Amendment supports same-sex marriage.Â
Related:
Law, Unwrapped: Analysis Of Today’s Prop 8 Decision That Is True Genius
Constitution Day: Marriage Equality Is A Right The Constitution Demands
Is The Right’s Attempt To Repeal The 14th Amendment An Excuse To Kill Marriage Equality?
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