In the midst of all the celebration and joy over President Barack Obama’s strong endorsement of the right of gay men and women to marry, he included in his statement on the issue that the matter should be dealt with on the state level, state by state.
But Ted Olson, former Solicitor General under President George W. Bush, disagrees.
He and David Boies, the two lawyers involved in the Bush V. Gore election controversy in 2000, are fighting to bring the denial of gay marriage in California, after it was first allowed, to the Supreme Court, with the idea that the Court can determine the constiitutionality of gay marriage, much as they did with interracial marriage in 1967, with the Loving V. Virginia case.
Yes, it is true that 31 states have banned gay marriage in votes of the people of those states, but why should a basic human right, the right to marry, be subjected to a vote of the people?
If this was done about interracial marriage, even today, a majority in many states would ban such a relationship, but it is not the right of anyone to tell others that they cannot have happiness, and this is the point of conservative Ted Olson and liberal David Boies!
There should be a national standard on marriage, and it should be legal and consistent everywhere in the country.
A Supreme Court decision could mandate this and end the issue for good!
And it is certain that such a decision would not prevent churches and synagogues from deciding not to marry gay people, since civil marriage is all that would be covered by such a decision.
Hopefully, sometime soon, the issue of gay marriage by civil method will be resolved in the law in favor of human rights!