Oppose Gay Marriage - But Constitutionally Please!

Earlier today, as expected, the proposed Constitutional Amendment to ban gay marriage failed, and rightfully so. Don't get me wrong, I'm opposed to gay marriage, it's just that a Constitutional Amendment is not the right way to solve the problem. If you're wondering why, you need look no further than a Constitutional amendment that's already in place, the 10th. Marriage, you see, is an issue of States' Rights, and has to be banned at a State level as opposed to the National one.

The 10th amendment states simply that powers not delineated to the Federal Government are reserved to the States. Marriage falls under this category. Marriage licenses are issued by State governments, not the Federal Government; and that's because the power to do so has been reserved to the States under the 10th Amendment. So, if you get a marriage license from the State, doesn't it make sense that you would get a marriage ban from the State as well?

The way to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman is to either introduce a bill in the State legislature or to simply have a Statewide ballot measure. Simply put, make a new State law to define marriage, something that 45 States have already done, but leave the Federal government out of it. In fact, if Congress were to pass the Federal marriage amendment, it would, technically, be unconstitutional; because marriage, via the 10th amendment, is an entity over which Congress has no jurisdiction.

The United States is supposed to have a Federal system of government, which means the States and National government share power. In the last 75 years this has, most unfortunately, not been the case. The Federal government has slowly but surely gobbled up power, and is now at the point where it can blackmail the States into compliance. Of all the things you may think are wrong with this country today, this surely disturbs our Founding Fathers the most as they lie in their graves. Consequently, however old and unfashionable it may be, I try to beat the States' Rights drum when appropriate, and the Federal marriage amendment is clearly one of those times.