6/26/15: Pro-family response to SCOTUS attack on marriage, states' rights
SAVECALIFORNIA.COM NEWS RELEASE
June 26, 2015 -- For Immediate Release
Pro-family response to SCOTUS attack on marriage, states' rights
Thomasson: "Sovereign states with constitutional marriage amendments should ignore this unconstitutional edict"
Media advisory: SaveCalifornia.com President Randy Thomasson will hold a media availability today (June 26) at 10:30 a.m. on the west side of the State Capitol building in Sacramento, on the 10th Street sidewalk.
Sacramento, California -- A leading pro-family organization in California is explaining why today's unconstitutional opinion on marriage from five of nine U.S. Supreme Court justices should be ignored by states with man-woman marriage definitions in their state constitutions.
"The Supreme Court got this wrong because a narrow majority of justices do not fear God and have rebelled against their promises to 'support and defend' the clearly written words of the U.S. Constitution, which does not contain the word 'marriage' but explicitly honors states' rights," said Randy Thomasson, a veteran man-woman marriage defender and president of SaveCalifornia.com, which promotes moral virtues for the common good. "The 14th Amendment is not about marriage but about race; not about couples but individuals -- essential distinctions one must recognize in order to be loyal to the Constitution."
"Because the Supreme Court has no troops to enforce its illegitimate opinion, sovereign states with constitutional marriage amendments should ignore this unconstitutional edict and should instead faithfully enforce their state constitutions, as all state officials swear to do," Thomasson said. "While federal judges subvert the written words of the Constitution, it is incumbent upon state-based supporters of our republic to authorize only man-woman marriages -- the natural kind -- as God-given stabilizers for family and society, supplying what's in the best interest of children."
Facts:
1. Marriage licenses and regulation are not in the United States Constitution, are therefore the jurisdiction of voters in individual states (9th and 10th Amendments; Article IV, Section 4).
2. Article IV, Section 4 guarantees to every state "a republican form of government" -- meaning 1) no monarchy and 2) no lawless mob rule, but a government of written laws representing the will of the people, who are sovereign. State constitutions represent the People's will on marriage, which the federal judiciary must affirm. (See footnote recording James Madison's definition of republican government as "a republican constitution and its existing laws" http://constitution.findlaw.com/article4/annotation18.html#t322)
3. The 10th Amendment explicitly says powers that don't belong to the federal government, or what the Constitution does not prohibit among the states, are state powers. Therefore, marriage is under the states' jurisdiction.
4. The 14th Amendment is one of three post-Civil War amendments and was about race -- giving black former slaves the same legal rights of white freemen -- not about marriage. The Amendment applied to the states what was already a federal right enshrined in the 5th Amendment -- that no one should be killed (deprived of life), imprisoned or enslaved (deprived of liberty), or deprived of their property without a court order (due process of law). Further, the Equal Protection Clause in no way requires the recognition of same-sex "marriages" because homosexual couples are not the same as heterosexual couples. They cannot have a conjugal union that produces children, and one of the primary purposes of marriage is to bind together fathers and mothers for the benefit of the children they bring into the world.
Authorities -- the Constitution of the United States:
Article IV, Section 4: "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened), against domestic Violence." http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html
5th Amendment: "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html
9th Amendment: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/ninth_amendment
10th Amendment: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/tenth_amendment
14th Amendment, Section 1: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_amendments_11-27.html
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SaveCalifornia.com is a leading West Coast nonprofit, nonpartisan organization standing strong for moral virtues for the common good. We represent children and families in the areas of marriage and family, parental rights, the sanctity of human life, religious freedom, financial freedom, and back-to-basics education.
