BARR ON FMA: Stephen Crampton

[Stephen Crampton is chief counsel for the American Family Association Center for Law and Policy, here.]

I appreciate Bob Barr and his thoughtful commentary. And while I usually agree with him, this is one time I think he is flat wrong. A constitutional amendment is an extreme remedy, to be sure, and should not be undertaken lightly. The battle to save traditional marriage, however, is a battle to save Western civilization itself. It demands no less than a constitutional amendment.

As a great American recently observed, "The question is not whether this is a battle we can win, but whether it is a battle we can afford to lose." (Maggie Gallagher, "The Stakes," National Review Online, July 14, 2003.) Bob Barr would have us leave the issue of same-sex marriage to the states. But such a solution is in reality no solution at all, for once a single state confers legal recognition to same-sex marriage, it creates utter chaos for every other state. As a highly mobile society, same-sex couples who relocate from the legally-sanctioning state to another state carry the marriage certificate with them. The second state must then determine whether to grant official recognition to the union, as the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the U.S. Constitution requires (Art. IV, sec. 1), or to deny official recognition on the basis of strong public policy against the act. If the latter, and the same-sex couple has adopted children, then an additional dilemma arises as to how to treat the children. This situation grows increasingly complex the greater the number of same-sex couples and the greater the number of states conferring official recognition. In the end, the only way any semblance of uniformity can be maintained among the several states is by recognizing the "marriage" in all states, and the nuclear family that serves as the building block for all ordered society is utterly decimated.

No, Bob Barr is wrong this time, dead wrong. I, for one, will do everything in my power to see that a constitutional amendment becomes a reality.
posted by maggie at 7:06 PM VOTE

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