Marriage: Privatize it.

Let me forewarn you here, this piece will, I think, have something in it to piss off damned near everyone.  So, why should I waste time in doing it?

Too begin with…I don’t care.  I don’t care who marries who or whom and/or for what reason.  A guy and a girl can get married.  Two guys can get married. Two girls can get married.  Two (or more) guys can marry a girl and two (or more girls) can marry a guy.  You get my drift.  I simply don’t care.

But, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent decision legalizing gay marriage across the board, the Court has really blown things apart.  You see, I favor gay marriage on the state level and not by judicial fiat.  Well, the fiat has come and gone…and left a shitload of questions in its wake. To me, the two most prevalent are:

What the Hell is to become of the 1^st Amendment? The 1^st Amendment states, in full:

“The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances.”

That’s pretty ironclad and pretty basic, right there – Hell, I can see that and I’m not even a Supreme Court Justice!  In particular, as a 1^st Amendment absolutist, I have to wonder what will become of those who trash the idea of gay marriage.  Well, nothing negative by the government if the Constitution is followed – because that would be abridging the freedom of speech. Secondly, what about the “impeding the free exercise of religion” part of the 1^st Amendment?

Actually, Ken Paxton, Attorney General of Texas, has already (and rightly) addressed that issue in a statement he issued yesterday (Sunday) in which he wrote:

“County clerks and their employees retain religious freedoms that may allow accommodation of their religious objections to issuing same-sex marriage licenses,” and…

“Justices of the peace and judges similarly retain religious freedoms and may claim that the government cannot force them to conduct same-sex wedding ceremonies over their religious objections,”

Well, well, well…so much for the supremacy of the Federal government…And, what will Obama do? Storm the Texas border with tanks?

And, as a 1^st Amendment absolutist as I am, I hope you can see why I have such difficulty with the Supreme Court’s fiat legalizing something I feel should be legal.

(“OK. This is offensive. What the Supreme Court did wasn’t storming a beach and costing thousands of lives. Come on. I believe in giving room for a victory lap but holy crap. This….” – My friend, Philip Parenti)

Hopefully, however, all of this will soon be a moot point.  I say this because two states – Alabama and Mississippi, have already taken a look at the idea of privatizing marriage – as in getting the state governments out of the marriage industry entirely.  It’s about damned time…as I’ve been making that argument for, lo, these past two or so decades.  In addition, GOP Presidential candidate, Rand Paul, issued a declaration in which his overall message was “Privatize Marriage.”

You go, Rand! And, people want to know why I say that for me, it’s Rand Paul or no one at all. With marriage privatized, it would be no one’s business who married who – ever.

The other concern I have regarding the Supreme Court’s usurpation of all law is…what is to become of state’s rights?  The 10^th Amendment to the Constitution states very clearly, as this is a direct quote: “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.”

If someone can find the term or any reference to “gay marriage” in the US Constitution, please let me know.  If not, the Supreme Court acted lawlessly.  It really IS that simple.

And, guess what folks?  It really IS that simple.

Chief Justice John Roberts, much – and deservedly – maligned for his Obamacare decision, seemed to get this when in the wake of the Supremes Gay Marriage decision he wrote:  “But do not celebrate the Constitution. It had nothing to do with it.”

Well, it did have something to do with the continuing trashing of it…

Whatever, I think that with the revived talk of privatizing marriage and with the fact that two states are, right now, looking into the possibility of it (Alabama’s Senate already voted 22-3 in favor of it – their House vote will come next session), if one thing can be learned from the Supreme Court’s decision legalizing it nationwide it is this:  That decision isn’t the end of anything.  If anything, it marks just the beginning.

Now, having wrote that – let me more or less repeat what I wrote at the beginning.  I don’t care.  I really don’t care who marries who.

But, I do care about the US Constitution.