MAGGIE GALLAGHER ON HATCH AND FMA

For three years the Alliance for Marriage has been working to create a consensus around the need for a federal marriage amendment. When President Bush announced his support for a constitutional amendment on marriage, the "Musgrave/Allard" language crafted by the Alliance for Marriage was the only language on the table.

The main thrust of this Federal Marriage Amendment is to create a common national definition of marriage, and to leave the question of civil unions or other partnership benefits to state legislatures:

"Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any State, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman."

Now, as social conservatives have gone through a painful process of creating consensus around this FMA, a new language and a new idea (attributed to Senator Hatch) has been thrust into the political mix:

"Civil marriage shall be defined in each state by the legislature or the citizens thereof. Nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to require that marriage or its benefits be extended to any union other than that of a man and a woman."

National Review endorsed the Hatch language as an acceptable alternative, and Ramesh Ponnuru vigorously defends it from my critique in the last week's Weekly Standard, on the grounds it "recognizes that the action to be concerned about blocking is the judicial imposition of same-sex marriage (or civil unions)."

Is he right? Does the Hatch amendment solve the problem?

That depends in part on what the problem is. In my view, the ongoing damage that is being done to marriage cannot be captured solely by the idea of "judicial activism." ...

In the middle of a broad cultural attack on the very idea of marriage as a key social institution, reducing our rallying cry from "save marriage" to "leave it to the states" suggests that in a profound way we agree with these critics: Marriage is not a key social institution, it is one of many "social policies" best left to individuals or to the states to work out.

The problem, both legally and politically, with the Hatch language is that is changes the topic from marriage to federalism. ...

Legally, the Hatch amendment's effects are complex and unclear. Politically, its effect is all too clear: By splitting the opposition to same-sex marriage into camps, the Hatch proposal is the opposite of mature leadership. It is a monkey wrench thrown into a serious, difficult, but absolutely critical effort to restore not only the proper balance of the courts, but a common, shared understanding of what marriage is, and how much it matters to this generation and to generations to come.

Which may be why Sen. Hatch made it clear last week that he endorses the original FMA.

more
posted by Eve at 5:36 PM VOTE

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home