The notion that the pre-Civil War constitution gave the feds
the power to define marriage or even refuse to honor the power of the states to
do so is nonsense.
The notion that Civil War amendments gave it such a power is
absurd.
All the same, it is amusing to see an agnostic defender of
social and Christian conservatism say so.
It was, after all, the social and Christian conservatives
who drove the Mormons out of the East and forced upon them renunciation of
polygamy as the price of statehood for Utah.
Not a hint, in this piece, of recognition that any such
thing ever happened.
Nothing here to besmirch the preposterous conservative lie
that they are now and have always been the defenders of the true constitution,
come what may.
Still, this time he’s on the right side.
DOMA is and was federal overreach by conservative zealots
led, as I recall, by the heroic Newt Gingrich, though it was signed by the
altogether un-heroic Bill Clinton.
But neither DOMA nor state laws discountenancing gay
marriage violate the 5th Amendment or the 14th Amendment, as the liberals want the court
to say.
I wonder what Will would say if Utah decided to grow a pair
and legally recognize Mormon – and Muslim? – polygamy.
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