BigKaboom2 wrote:As long as it does continue to exist, I don't recall anything in the Constitution preventing homosexuals from being married as well, so opposition to it absolutely baffles me.
Well, you know, some people don't use the Constitution as their document of beliefs of what the federal government should do. Instead they see it as that stupid thing that gets in the way of government, and therefore is an "evolutionary" document.
I don't see how you can advocate banning gay marriage (seemingly always a religious belief) without also supporting your religion as a state religion, which would breach the First Amendment in my interpretation.
And I don't see how you can follow that line of reasoning.
Murder is against most religions, is it establishing a state religion to have laws against murder? Supporting bans on abortion, opposing the invasion of Iraq on religious grounds, are these violations of the First Amendment?
James Madison wrote:Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof
What religion becomes the state religion if a federal law was passed against same-sex marriage? Christianity in general? Judaism? Islam? Jaeitology?
Of course, this also ignores those who are opposed to legalization (i.e. encoding in law) of same-sex marriage for non-religious reasons. There are people that consider marriages primary purpose to be reproduction, or those that see marriages as non state constructs. There are of plenty of scholars who are opposed to same-sex marriage for what they see as negative socioeconomic impacts of "cohabitation" proliferation.
Irregardless. Such a federal law would be overturned by the Fourteenth Amendment, not the First, as the Court has held marriage to be a right. The states can set whatever laws regarding this matter they wish until the Supreme Court agrees to hear anything on DOMA however. The federal government would never be able to, a Constitutional Amendment is the only method possible.