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Frist Endorses Constitutional Amendment to Ban Gay Marriage

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by Timing, Jun 30, 2003.

  1. Cohen

    Cohen Member

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    :D
     
  2. Supermac34

    Supermac34 President, Von Wafer Fan Club

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    I thought being married you paid MORE taxes. It was called the marriage penalty. Two married people would pay more tax than two people that were single but whose combined income was the same.

    That has been done away with now. Married people with an income of X dollars pay the same amount of tax as two people combined making X dollars.

    It was always crappy tax wise to get married. Now its just even.
     
  3. RocketMan Tex

    RocketMan Tex Member

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    Truth hurts, eh?:p
     
  4. Timing

    Timing Member

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    Apparently W supports a ban on gay marriage but feels a Constitutional Amendment may not be necessary "yet". Just incredible...


    Bush: Gay Marriage Ban May Not Be Needed
    55 minutes ago Add Top Stories - AP to My Yahoo!



    WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) said Wednesday that a constitutional ban on gay marriage that has been proposed in the House might not be needed despite a Supreme Court decision that some conservatives think opens the door to legalizing same-sex marriages.


    "I don't know if it's necessary yet," Bush said. "Let's let the lawyers look at the full ramifications of the recent Supreme Court hearing. What I do support is a notion that marriage is between a man and a woman."


    Bush's words were aimed at calming members of the GOP's right wing, who are upset about the Supreme Court decision, said Patrick Guerriero, director of the Log Cabin Republicans (news - web sites), a gay advocacy group. "I think what you're seeing is a momentary time-out from the radical right's temper tantrum," he said.


    In striking down a Texas law that made homosexual sex a crime, the Supreme Court on June 26 overturned its earlier ruling that said states could punish homosexuals for having sex.


    Conservative Justice Antonin Scalia (news - web sites) fired off a blistering dissent of the ruling.


    The "opinion dismantles the structure of constitutional law that has permitted a distinction to be made between heterosexual and homosexual unions, insofar as formal recognition in marriage is concerned," Scalia wrote. The ruling specifically said that the court was not addressing that issue, but Scalia warned, "Do not believe it."


    The Supreme Court's decision was a broad ruling addressing privacy, and gay rights groups are saying they will use it to push for more legal rights.


    "We have a powerful new weapon in our legal battles on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people, but the impact of this ruling also stretches well beyond the walls of our nation's courtrooms," Kevin Cathcart, director of New York-based Lambda Legal, a gay rights advocacy group, said Wednesday in announcing a new online resource that maps out how the group will use the ruling to win full recognition of same-sex relationships, among other things.


    Legal authorities are also combing the decision to see what its impact will really be on other gay rights issues.


    "I don't know that there is any clear assessment — that anybody has at this point — about the legal ramifications of a just-made decision," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) said.


    The president was asked about whether he supported a federal constitutional amendment that would define marriage as a union between a man and a woman during an impromptu news conference that followed his announcement of a new global AIDS (news - web sites) ambassador.


    Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., was the main sponsor of the proposal offered May 21 to amend the Constitution. It was referred on June 25 to the House Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution.


    To be added to the Constitution, the proposal must be approved by two-thirds of the House and the Senate and ratified by three-fourths of the states.


    On Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said the Supreme Court's decision on gay sex threatens to make the American home a place where criminality is condoned. He said he supported the proposed constitutional amendment to ban homosexual marriage in the United States
     
  5. Refman

    Refman Member

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    Your statement might have some punch to it but for the fact that EVERY BLOODY THING that comes about brings a cry of discrimination from you.

    Personally, I oppose the amendment. I'm not saying that I am whole heartedly behind the state endorsing such unions. (I actually don't care either way)

    In my view, what is or is not a marriage should be the EXCLUSIVE perview of STATE law. The Feds simply shouldn't get involved.
     
  6. Timing

    Timing Member

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    Just like every bloody thing that comes about brings a state of oblivion to discrimination from you. Nice job Reffie. Why don't you climb back into that hole you're keeping yourself in and let the people who care about the issue discuss it.
     
  7. Timing

    Timing Member

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    Originally posted by goophers
    It opens the door to polygamy arguments because many of the arguments I hear that support gay marriages also support polygamy. Heterosexual marriage doesn't open the same door because the current law allows it, but not homosexual or polygamic marriages.

    That makes no sense. Does gay marriage then open the door to bestiality and marriage to inanimate objects since the current laws don't allow it? It absolutely doesn't open any door.

    Your argument here to support gay marriages seems to be that it's not a new thing to have two people joined in marriage. As others have said in this thread, it's not a new thing to have more than two joined in marriage.

    Our laws protect people against discrimination based on gender, race, origin, religion, sexuality, etc. The government recognition of only hetero marriage is therefore discrimination. The government ban on polygamy stems from the values within our society that don't discriminate on the basis of the things mentioned above. (Unless someone is going to claim polygamy as a religious right or something then I don't know where you go there, there have probably been cases on that. Of course religious freedom is not absolute.) We can ban behavior that is inconsistent with our values as a society but not while we discriminate in the process.

    And as for the huge potential for fraud and harm, is there really a big difference between polygamy and gay marriages? I would think that the number of fraudulent marriages would go up if gay marriages were allowed because people that were roommates could have incentive to say they're married even if they're both straight (for company benefits, etc).

    The fact that a polygamist could marry hundreds of people obviously means the potential for fraud is significantly higher than it could be with gay or straight marriages. Someone could marry an illegal alien every day to get them green cards and then just accept "services" or a fee in return. Two people of different sexes who are roommates can claim to be married right now to get benefits so how would gay couples be any different?
     
  8. outlaw

    outlaw Member

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    Make every couple have to submit a video tape proving that they've consumated their marriage before getting benefits. That should prevent your straight roommate scenario.
     
  9. Rocketman95

    Rocketman95 Hangout Boy

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    How many straight people get married now just for insurance purposes?
     
  10. goophers

    goophers Member

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    LOL!
     
  11. goophers

    goophers Member

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    I'm still not seeing the difference between gay and polygamic marriages. See comments below for more detail. It doesn't open the door to bestiality or inanimate objects because marriage is a legal arrangement made between consenting people. An animal or inanimate object can't consent.


    The exact same argument (that laws are based on our societal values) can be made versus gay marriages. It doesn't hold water IMHO. You said our laws protect people against discrimination based on sexuality, and isn't that what polygamy is? Also, polygamy is a religious belief for hundreds of years (Mormons) and also in some cultures (see Cameroon example from another's earlier posts). So it looks to me like a case *COULD* be made that not allowing polygamy is trampling on the protection the law gives under sexuality, race, origin, and religion.

    My point with this was that fraudulent marriages could occur in hetero, homo, or polygamic marriages. Further, the chances of fraud occurring would seem to be hetero < homo < poly (because of the common practice of same sex roommates living together lends itself to more fraud than hetero marriages, and polygamy would have more fraud than either hetero or homo due to your reasoning). My point is that if you're not going to allow polygamic marriages simply due to the possibility of fraud, then how can you have a problem with people opposing gay marriages for the same reason?
     
  12. Timing

    Timing Member

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    Originally posted by goophers
    I'm still not seeing the difference between gay and polygamic marriages. See comments below for more detail. It doesn't open the door to bestiality or inanimate objects because marriage is a legal arrangement made between consenting people. An animal or inanimate object can't consent.

    Marriage as it stands is a legal arrangement made between two consenting people. Gay and straight marriage have that in common. Polygamy does not.

    The exact same argument (that laws are based on our societal values) can be made versus gay marriages. It doesn't hold water IMHO. You said our laws protect people against discrimination based on sexuality, and isn't that what polygamy is? Also, polygamy is a religious belief for hundreds of years (Mormons) and also in some cultures (see Cameroon example from another's earlier posts). So it looks to me like a case *COULD* be made that not allowing polygamy is trampling on the protection the law gives under sexuality, race, origin, and religion.

    Polygamy isn't indicative of a sexuality or gender. It's a marriage between more than two people. We limit all the time how many people can do something in order to secure public safety. Resricting polygamy is the same thing. Religious belief isn't absolute in this country when it comes in conflict with the public good. As long as you're not discriminating on the issues I mentioned previously, you can outlaw practices, even religious ones, that conflict with our values. Human sacrifices for example.

    If you're really interested, here is the text from the Supreme Court case that outlaws polygamy. It's pretty long but interesteing. It explains the religious aspect of it and how polygamy goes against our society's values. Gay marriage may also go against our values but restricting it constitutes discrimination while restricting polygamy does not.



    U.S. Supreme Court

    REYNOLDS v. U.S., 98 U.S. 145 (1878)

    98 U.S. 145


    As to the defence of religious belief or duty.

    On the trial, the plaintiff in error, the accused, proved that at the time of his alleged second marriage he was, and for many years before had been, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, commonly called the Mormon Church, and a believer in its doctrines; that it was an accepted doctrine of that church 'that it was the duty of male members of said church, circumstances permitting, to practise
    polygamy ; . . . that this duty was enjoined by different books which the members of said church believed to be of divine origin, and among others the Holy Bible, and also that the members of the church believed that the practice of polygamy was directly enjoined upon the male members thereof by the Almighty God, in a revelation to Joseph Smith, the founder and prophet of said church; that the failing or refusing to practise polygamy by such male members of said church, when circumstances would admit, would be punished, and that the penalty for such failure and refusal would be damnation in the life to come.' He also proved 'that he had received permission from the recognized authorities in said church to enter into polygamous marriage; . . . that Daniel H. Wells, one having authority in said church to perform the marriage ceremony, married the said defendant on or about the time the crime is alleged to have been committed, to some woman by the name of Schofield, and that such marriage ceremony was performed under and pursuant to the doctrines of said church.'

    Upon this proof he asked the court to instruct the jury that if they found from the evidence that he 'was married as [98 U.S. 145, 162] charged-if he was married-in pursuance of and in conformity with what he believed at the time to be a religious duty, that the verdict must be 'not guilty." This request was refused, and the court did charge 'that there must have been a criminal intent, but that if the defendant, under the influence of a religious belief that it was right,-under an inspiration, if you please, that it was right,-deliberately married a second time, having a first wife living, the want of consciousness of evil intent-the want of understanding on his part that he was committing a crime-did not excuse him; but the law inexorably in such case implies the criminal intent.'

    Upon this charge and refusal to charge the question is raised, whether religious belief can be accepted as a justification of an overt act made criminal by the law of the land. The inquiry is not as to the power of Congress to prescribe criminal laws for the Territories, but as to the guilt of one who knowingly violates a law which has been properly enacted, if he entertains a religious belief that the law is wrong.

    Congress cannot pass a law for the government of the Territories which shall prohibit the free exercise of religion. The first amendment to the Constitution expressly forbids such legislation. Religious freedom is guaranteed everywhere throughout the United States, so far as congressional interference is concerned. The question to be determined is, whether the law now under consideration comes within this prohibition.

    The word 'religion' is not defined in the Constitution. We must go elsewhere, therefore, to ascertain its meaning, and nowhere more appropriately, we think, than to the history of the times in the midst of which the provision was adopted. The precise point of the inquiry is, what is the religious freedom which has been guaranteed.

    Before the adoption of the Constitution, attempts were made in some of the colonies and States to legislate not only in respect to the establishment of religion, but in respect to its doctrines and precepts as well. The people were taxed, against their will, for the support of religion, and sometimes for the support of particular sects to whose tenets they could not and did not subscribe. Punishments were prescribed for a failure to attend upon public worship, and sometimes for entertaining [98 U.S. 145, 163] heretical opinions. The controversy
    upon this general subject was animated in many of the States, but seemed at last to culminate in Virginia. In 1784, the House of Delegates of that State having under consideration 'a bill establishing provision for teachers of the Christian religion,' postponed it until the next session, and directed that the bill should be published and distributed, and that the people be requested 'to signify their opinion respecting the adoption of such a bill at the next session of assembly.'

    This brought out a determined opposition. Amongst others, Mr. Madison prepared a 'Memorial and Remonstrance,' which was widely circulated and signed, and in which he demonstrated 'that religion, or the duty we owe the Creator,' was not within the cognizance of civil government. Semple's Virginia Baptists, Appendix. At the next session the proposed bill was not only defeated, but another, 'for establishing religious freedom,' drafted by Mr. Jefferson, was passed. 1 Jeff. Works, 45; 2 Howison, Hist. of Va. 298. In the preamble of this act (12 Hening's Stat. 84) religious freedom is defined; and after a recital 'that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion, and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency, is a dangerous fallacy which at once destroys all religious liberty,' it is declared 'that it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government for its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order.' In these two sentences is found the true distinction
    between what properly belongs to the church and what to the State.

    In a little more than a year after the passage of this statute the convention met which prepared the Constitution of the United States.' Of this convention Mr. Jefferson was not a member, he being then absent as minister to France. As soon as he saw the draft of the Constitution proposed for adoption, he, in a letter to a friend, expressed his disappointment at the absence of an express declaration insuring the freedom of religion (2 Jeff. Works, 355), but was willing to accept it as it was, trusting that the good sense and honest intentions of the people would bring about the necessary alterations. [98 U.S. 145, 164] 1 Jeff. Works, 79. Five of the States, while adopting the Constitution, proposed amendments. Three-New Hampshire, New York, and Virginia-included in one form or another a declaration of religious freedom in the changes they desired to have made, as did also North Carolina, where the convention at first declined to ratify the
    Constitution until the proposed amendments were acted upon. Accordingly, at the first session of the first Congress the amendment now under consideration was proposed with others by Mr. Madison. It met the views of the advocates of religious freedom, and was adopted. Mr. Jefferson afterwards, in reply to an address to him by a committee of the Danbury Baptist Association (8 id. 113), took occasion to
    say: 'Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God; that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship; that the legislative powers of the government reach actions only, and not opinions,-I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion or
    prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore man to all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.' Coming as this does from an acknowledged leader of the advocates of the measure, it may be accepted almost as an authoritative declaration of the scope and effect of the amendment thus secured. Congress was deprived of all legislative power over mere opinion, but was left free to reach actions which were in violation of social duties or subversive of good order.

    Polygamy has always been odious among the northern and western nations of Europe, and, until the establishment of the Mormon Church, was almost exclusively a feature of the life of Asiatic and of African people. At common law, the second marriage was always void (2 Kent, Com. 79), and from the earliest history of England polygamy has been treated as an offence against society. After the establishment of the ecclesiastical [98 U.S. 145, 165] courts, and until the time of James I., it was punished through the instrumentality of those tribunals, not merely because ecclesiastical rights had been violated, but because upon the separation of the ecclesiastical courts from the civil the ecclesiastical were supposed to be the most appropriate for the trial of matrimonial causes and offences against the rights of marriage, just as they were for testamentary causes and the settlement of the estates of deceased persons.

    By the statute of 1 James I. (c. 11), the offence, if committed in England or Wales, was made punishable in the civil courts, and the penalty was death. As this statute was limited in its operation to England and Wales, it was at a very early period re-enacted, generally with some modifications, in all the colonies. In connection with the case we are now considering, it is a significant fact that on the 8th of December, 1788, after the passage of the act establishing religious freedom, and after the convention of Virginia had recommended as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States the declaration in a bill of rights that 'all men have an equal, natural, and unalienable right to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience,' the legislature of that State substantially enacted the statute of James I., death penalty included, because, as recited in the preamble, 'it hath been doubted whether bigamy or poligamy be punishable by the laws of this Commonwealth.' 12 Hening's Stat. 691. From that day to this we think it may safely be said there never has been a time in any State of the Union when polygamy has not been an offence against society, cognizable by the civil courts and punishable with more or less severity. In the face of all this evidence, it is impossible to believe that the constitutional guaranty of religious freedom was intended to prohibit legislation in respect to this most important feature of social life. Marriage, while from its very nature a sacred obligation, is nevertheless, in
    most civilized nations, a civil contract, and usually regulated by law. Upon it society may be said to be built, and out of its fruits spring social relations and social obligations and duties, with which government is necessarily required to deal. In fact, according as monogamous or polygamous marriages are allowed, do we find the principles on which the government of [98 U.S. 145, 166] the people, to a greater or less extent, rests. Professor, Lieber says, polygamy leads to the patriarchal principle, and which, when applied to large communities, fetters the people in stationary despotism, while that principle cannot long exist in connection with monogamy. Chancellor Kent observes that this remark is equally striking and profound. 2 Kent, Com. 81, note (e). An exceptional colony of polygamists under an exceptional leadership may sometimes exist for a time without appearing to disturb the social condition of the people who surround it; but there cannot be a doubt that, unless restricted by some form of constitution, it is within the legitimate scope of the power of every civil government to determine whether polygamy or monogamy shall be the law of social life under its dominion.

    In our opinion, the statute immediately under consideration is within the legislative power of Congress. It is constitutional and valid as prescribing a rule of action for all those residing in the Territories, and in places over which the United States have exclusive control. This being so, the only question which remains is, whether those who make polygamy a part of their religion are excepted from the operation of the statute. If they are, then those who do not make polygamy a part of their religious belief may be found guilty and punished, while those who do, must be acquitted and go free. This would be introducing a new element into criminal law. Laws are made for the government of actions, and while they cannot interfere with mere religious belief and opinions, they may with practices. Suppose one believed that human sacrifices were a necessary part of religious worship, would it be seriously contended that the civil government under which he lived could not interfere to prevent a sacrifice? Or if a wife religiously believed it was her duty to burn herself upon the funeral pile of her dead husband, would it be beyond the power of the civil government to prevent her carrying her belief into practice?

    So here, as a law of the organization of society under the exclusive dominion of the United States, it is provided that plural marriages shall not be allowed. Can a man excuse his practices to the contrary because of his religious belief? [98 U.S. 145, 167] To permit this would be to make the professed doctrines of religious belief superior to the law of the land, and in effect to permit every citizen to become a law unto himself. Government could exist only in name under such circumstances.

    A criminal intent is generally an element of crime, but every man is presumed to intend the necessary and legitimate consequences of what he knowingly does. Here the accused knew he had been once married, and that his first wife was living. He also knew that his second marriage was forbidden by law. When, therefore, he married the second time, he is presumed to have intended to break the law. And the breaking of the law is the crime. Every act necessary to constitute the crime was knowingly done, and the crime was therefore knowingly committed. Ignorance of a fact may sometimes be taken as evidence of a want of criminal intent, but not ignorance of the law. The only defence of the accused in this case is his belief that the law ought not to have been enacted. It matters not that his belief was a part of his professed religion: it was still belief, and belief only.

    In Regina v. Wagstaff (10 Cox Crim. Cases, 531), the parents of a sick child, who omitted to call in medical attendance because of their religious belief that what they did for its cure would be effective, were held not to be guilty of manslaughter, while it was said the contrary would have been the result if the child had actually been starved to death by the parents, under the notion that it was their religious duty to abstain from giving it food. But when the offence consists of a positive act which is knowingly done, it would be dangerous to hold that the offender might escape punishment because he religiously believed the law which he had broken ought never to have been made. No case, we believe, can be found that has gone so far.
     
  13. outlaw

    outlaw Member

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    Polygamy is not a sexuality. There is only hetero, homo and bisexuality.

    Sexuality = your attraction to others based on their gender
    Polygamy = the act of marrying more than one person at the same
    time
     
  14. goophers

    goophers Member

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    Outlaw,
    Ok, so the protection under sexuality wouldn't work. That was why I emphasized the word 'could' in my post. I think the others could still apply, if only in a long legal argument.

    I am not trying to promote polygamy here. My 'gut' tells me that gay marriages or some equivalent should be allowed and polygamy should not. However, my gut doesn't dictate the law and my purpose in this thread is trying to sort out what I think the law should be.


    I actually hoped you would say this. Marriage as it stands is a legal arrangement made between one man and one woman. The thing that started this thread was people saying that the current law is wrong. Why can't it be wrong with regards to the number of people getting married?

    Thanks for posting the Supreme Court decision. It was an interesting read. However, I could not find specific legislative reasoning behind the polygamy law. Most of it was about the inapplicability of the first amendment in this case. The way I read it, polygamy being outlawed was upheld because the man knowingly went against the current law, not whether the current law was just or not. The only explanation I picked out from reading this as to why polygamy is outlawed was that polygamy has been upheld as illegal for some time, so it had become the operating law of the land. However, even that reasoning would be difficult to defend today as the court says that it had been illegal in northern and western Europe, but had also be legal in the Mormon church, Asia, and Africa. The historical laws of Europe should not be held in higher regard than the historical laws of Asia or Africa, all else being equal, since that would be discrimination.

    Can you give an example? I mean, laws are made which limit the number of people in a club due to fire hazards. However, I don't think protecting people from physical harm is the same as polygamy. Can you clarify this point?

    As I said before, some will say that gay marriages conflict with our values. Human sacrifices and the last paragraph of the supreme court ruling are different because they involve physical bodily harm to another person. Polygamy does not involve harming another person.
     
  15. outlaw

    outlaw Member

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    This case is probably more relavant to the subject:

    RICHARD PERRY LOVING et ux., Appellants, v. VIRGINIA
    388 US 1, 18 L ed 2d 1010, 87 S Ct 1817
    Argued April 10, 1967. Decided June 12, 1967.

    SUMMARY
    __ The issue presented in the instant case concerned the validity of the Virginia antimiscegenation statutes, the central features of which are the absolute prohibition of a "white person" marrying any person other than a "white person"

    __ A husband, "a white person", and his wife, a "colored person," within the meanings given those terms by a Virginia statute, both residents of Virginia, were married in the District of Columbia pursuant to its laws, and shortly thereafter returned to Virginia, where, upon their plea of guilty, they were sentenced, in a Virginia state court, to one year in jail for violating Virginia's ban on interracial marriages. Their motion to vacate the sentences on the ground of the unconstitutionality of these statutes was denied by the trial court. The Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals affirmed. (206 Va 924, 147 SE2d 78)

    __ On appeal, the Supreme Court of the United States reversed the conviction. In an opinion by WARREN, Ch.J., expressing the view of eight members of the court, it was held that the Virginia statutes violated both the equal protection and the due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.

    __ STEWART, J., concurred in the judgment on the ground that a state law making the criminality of an act depend upon the race of the actor is invalid.

    OPINION OF THE COURT
    Mr. Chief Justice Warren delivered the opinion of the Court.
    __ This case presents a constitutional question never addressed by this Court: whether a statutory scheme adopted by the State of Virginia to prevent marriages between persons solely on the basis of racial classifications violates the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. For reasons which seem to us to reflect the central meaning of those constitutional commands, we conclude that these statutes cannot stand consistently with the Fourteenth Amendment.
    __ In June 1958, two residents of Virginia, Mildred Jeter, a Negro woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, were married in the District of Columbia pursuant to its laws. Shortly after their marriage, the Lovings returned to Virginia and established their marital abode in Caroline County. At the October Term, 1958, the Circuit Court of Caroline County, a grand jury issued an indictment charging the Lovings with violating Virginia's ban on interracial marriages. On January 6, 1959, the Lovings pleaded guilty to the charge and were sentenced to one year in jail; however, the trial judge suspended the sentence for a period of 25 years on the condition that the Lovings leave the State and not return to Virginia together for 25 years. He stated in an opinion that:
    _
    __ "Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix."

    After their convictions, the Lovings took up residence in the District of Columbia. On November 6, 1963, they filed a motion in the state trial court to vacate the judgment and set aside the sentence on the ground that the statutes which they had violated were repugnant to the Fourteenth Amendment. The motion not having been decided by October 28, 1964, the Lovings instituted a class action in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia requesting that a three-judge court be convened to declare the Virginia antimiscegenation statutes unconstitutional and to enjoin state officials from enforcing their convictions. On January 22, 1965, the state trial judge denied the motion to vacate the sentences, and the Lovings perfected an appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia. On February 11, 1965, the three-judge District Court continued the case to allow the Lovings to present their constitutional claims to the highest state court.

    __ The Supreme Court of Appeals upheld the constitutionality of the antimiscegenation statutes and, after modifying the sentence, affirmed the convictions. The Lovings appealed this decision, and we noted probable jurisdiction on December 12, 1966.

    __ The two statutes under which appellants were convicted and sentenced are part of a comprehensive statutory scheme aimed at prohibiting and punishing interracial marriages. The Lovings were convicted of violating Section 20-58 of the Virginia Code:

    __ "Leaving State to evade law.---If any white person and colored person shall go out of this State, for the purpose of being married, and with the intention of returning, and be married out of it, and afterwards return and reside in it, cohabiting as man and wife, they shall be punished as provided in Section 20-59, and the marriage shall be governed by the same law as if it had been solemnized in this State. The fact of their cohabitation here as man and wife shall be evidence of their marriage."

    Section 20-59, which defines the penalty for miscegenation, provides:
    __ "Punishment for marriage.---If any white person intermarry with a colored person, or any colored person intermarry with a white person, he shall be guilty of a felony and shall be punished by confinement in the penitentiary for not less than one nor more than five years."


    __ Other central provisions in the Virginia statutory scheme are Section 20-57, which automatically voids all marriages between "a white person and a colored person" without any judicial proceeding, and Sections 20-54 and 1-14 which, respectively, define "white persons" and "colored persons and Indians" for purposes of the statutory prohibitions. The Lovings have never disputed in the course of this litigation that Mrs. Loving is a "colored person" or that Mr. Loving is a "white person" within the meanings given those terms by the Virginia statutes.

    __ Virginia is now one of 16 States which prohibit and punish marriages on the basis of racial classifications. Penalties for miscegenation arose as an incident to slavery and have been common in Virginia since the colonial period. The present statutory scheme dates from the adoption of the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, passed during the period of extreme nativism which followed the end of the First World War. The central features of this Act, and current Virginia law, are the absolute prohibition of a "white person" marrying other than another "white person", a prohibition against issuing marriage licenses until the issuing official is satisfied that the applicants' statements as to their race are correct, certificates of "racial composition" to be kept by both local and state registrars, and the carrying forward of earlier prohibitions against racial intermarriage.

    I.
    __ In upholding the constitutionality of these provisions in the decision below, the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia referred to its 1955 decision in Naim v. Naim as stating the reasons supporting the validity of these laws. In Naim, the state court concluded that the State's legitimate purposes were "to preserve the racial integrity of its citizens", and "the obliteration of racial pride," obviously an endorsement of the doctrine of White Supremacy. The Court also reasoned that marriage has traditionally been subject to state regulation without federal intervention, and, consequently, the regulation of marriage should be left to exclusive state control by the Tenth Amendment.
    __ While the state court is no doubt correct in asserting that marriage is a social relation subject to the State's police power, the State does not contend in its argument before this Court that its powers to regulate marriage are unlimited, notwithstanding the Fourteenth Amendment. Nor could it do so in light of Meyer v. Nebraska (1923) and Skinner v. Oklahoma (1942). Instead, the State argues that the meaning of the Equal Protection Clause, as illuminated by the statements of the Framers, is only that state penal laws containing an interracial element as part of the definition of the offense must apply equally to whites and Negroes in the sense that members of each race are punished to the same degree.

    __ The clear and central purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment was to eliminate all official sources of invidious racial discrimination in the States. There can be no question but that Virginia's miscegenation statutes rest solely upon distinctions drawn according to race. The statutes proscribe generally accepted conduct if engaged in by members of different races. At the very least, the Equal Protection Clause demands that racial classifications, especially suspect in criminal statutes, be subjected to the "most rigid scrutiny", and, if they are ever to be upheld, they must be shown to be necessary to the accomplishment of some permissible state objective, independent of the racial discrimination which was the object of the Fourteenth Amendment to eliminate. Indeed, two members of this Court have already stated that they "cannot conceive of a valid legislative purpose...which makes the color of a person's skin the test of whether his conduct is a criminal offense."

    __ There is patently no legitimate overriding purpose independent of invidious racial discrimination which justifies this classification. The fact that Virginia prohibits only interracial marriages involving white persons demonstrates that the racial classifications must stand on their own justification, as measures designed to maintain White Supremacy. We have consistently denied the constitutionality of measures which restrict the rights of citizens on account of race. There can be no doubt that restricting the freedom to marry solely because of racial classifications violates the central meaning of the Equal Protection Clause.

    II.
    __ These statutes also deprive the Lovings of liberty without due process of law in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.
    __ Marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man," fundamental to our very existence and survival. To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discriminations. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State.

    These convictions must be reversed.
    __ It is so ordered.


    http://www.moseshand.com/studies/loving.htm
     
  16. SamFisher

    SamFisher Member

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    outlaw, just to clarify,
    that Loving case you posted was based on the 14th amendment, and is based on different logic than Lawrence, or that a gay marriage or polygamy case would be on .

    Lawrence v. Texas and future cases in this area about the right to privacy etc. (and that gay marriage may come from) are based on another line of cases stemming from Grisswold v. Connecticut (a case that invalidated a state law against birth control) and don't have as much to do with the 14th amdt.
     
    #136 SamFisher, Jul 4, 2003
    Last edited: Jul 4, 2003
  17. outlaw

    outlaw Member

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    yes i realize that Sam. If the other 5 justices in Lawrence had agreed with Sandy then it would have been based on the 14th amendment and equal protection and gave better ground in a marriage battle. However, if that happened then the sodomy laws would still apply in the 9 states that had them for everyone. So you win some you lose some I guess.

    I guess I posted the Loving decision not so much as a legal basis for allowing gay marriage as much as an ethical and historical one. But you are right I should have clarified that.
     
  18. Mori

    Mori Member

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    Not to complicate the issue more, but I disagree with some of the above. First, I don't see why there cannot be other systems of sexuality that aren't based on gender. Why not have a system based on whether or not you are attracted to skinny people? (crappy example, I know) Therefore, it could be argued that there is more to sexuality than hetero, homo, and bi. Additionally, I don't think gender is something as simple as man or woman, either. And if we allow for something outside a strict binary of gender, then having a simple sexuality based on gender also begins to falter. I mean, who does an intersexed (hermaphrodite) person or transexual/transgendered person have to be with in order to be straight or homo or bi?
     
  19. SamFisher

    SamFisher Member

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    yeah, I know it's not irrelevant, I was just being all book smart.
     
    #139 SamFisher, Jul 4, 2003
    Last edited: Jul 4, 2003
  20. outlaw

    outlaw Member

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    Good points. In my view though gender identity and sexual orientation are seperate. For instance I'm not attracted to men simply because I am one. If a transgendered male-to-female person is attracted only to men then I consider them to be straight, no matter what body parts they may still have. I realize that is not the mainstream view however. Not sure about intersexed indivudals but I assume most of them classify themselves as one gender or the other and not as both?
     

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