Are Same Sex Marriage Advocates Actually Tenthers?
Written by:
Josh Eboch
They are if they oppose the federal Defense of Marriage Act on constitutional grounds. Which, as it turns out, is exactly what supporters of same sex marriage are doing in Massachusetts.
From the Wall Street Journal:
Last week, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley moved for summary judgment in a lawsuit, filed last July, brought by the Bay State against the federal government challenging the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman…
In its lawsuit, Massachusetts has argued that DOMA’s definition of marriage violates the 10th Amendment as well as the Constitution’s Spending Clause by forcing “the Commonwealth to engage in invidious discrimination against its own citizens in order to receive and retain federal funds in connection with two joint federal-state programs.”
Wow, Martha’s complaint sounds an awful lot like it could have been lodged against ObamaCare!
One can only hope that cases like this will help bring more people on both sides to the inevitable conclusion that if decentralization is good enough for one issue it must be good enough for all issues.
Here’s a novel idea: Rather than citing the Constitution when we like it, and ignoring it when we don’t, let’s stop asking or allowing the feds to exercise any power that isn’t specifically enumerated, from subsidizing health care to defining marriage to prosecuting the war on drugs.
Josh is a proud "tenther", freelance writer, and activist originally from the Washington, D.C. area. He is a blogger for TAC's Tenther Grapevine and the State Chapter Coordinator for the Virginia Tenth Amendment Center.
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EDITOR'S NOTE: The views expressed in the above post are those of the individual author only. The article is presented here to foster discussion, and does not necessarily represent the views or positions of the national Tenth Amendment Center.
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 9:01 pm. It is filed under Commentary, federalism, health care, Nullification and tagged with 10th amendment, constitution, federalism, health care, state sovereignty, states' rights, tenther, Virginia Sovereignty.
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Yes we are!!!! I just finished writing to my GOP compatriots asking them to support a repeal of DOMA because Repeal is Fiscally Conservative, and because the provision that prohibits federal recognition of a valid state marriage is Unconstitutional on 10th Amendment grounds: http://www.tullyspage.blogspot.com
And the most basic question, of course, is this – what delegated power in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution gives the Congress any say in marriage at all? This is a social issue, and at the time of the ratification, the founders made clear to the people that social issues would be something dealt with in the states.
Thom,
That's great, I'm so glad to hear you're using the Tenth Amendment to fight against DOMA. It's amazing how many issues that seem so intractable on the national level could be dispersed to the people of the 50 states and resolved at that level if we can just join forces across the political spectrum and demand that the feds stay inside their constitutional box.
On our twitter account, here's an interesting reply to the question you asked here:
I think a lot of conservative-types have the 10th amendment and being conservative confused – which is why they have no problem cheering on federal expansions of power when it's in their own interest. No better than the other side, in my opinion.