Is marriage a state issue or a federal issue?
That question is decisively answered by the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
The Constitution does not mention marriage in any way, shape or form. It does not give regulation of marriage to Congress, nor to the states, nor does it forbid the states to do anything about it. Therefore, it is a reserved power for the states.
And so every state in the union has laws on their books on marriage license requirements.
Now…is gay marriage a federal matter or a state matter?
Under the Constitution, as we’ve just discussed, that matter rests with the STATE. Civil unions are not mentioned either, so that falls under the jurisdiction of the states too.
Not so fast…they’re trying to tamper with the Constitution again. It’s not one side or the other this time, it’s both sides. The conservatives are trying to ban gay marriage via a Constitutional Amendment, and the liberals are trying to get the federal courts to overrule states who have banned gay marriage inside their borders.
My advice would be for the big government to leave the little governments alone. I do not support gay “marriage”, but I like the weakening of the Constitution even less.
If a case reaches a state Supreme Court, it should stop there. It’s a reserved power, no matter what activist judges say. Federal judges ought to keep their noses out of it, but both sides want the last word, so they take it up to the federal level if they lose on the state level. What they ought to do is put it on the ballot!
Some people think that if they litigate it enough, they’ll find a sympathetic judge eventually. They ought to pay the entire bill for the process and not dump it on the taxpayers.
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