About Civil unions......?

Question

How do you argue against the 1st and 14th amendments to allow the laws against Gay Marriage?

For the record, no religious argument is allowed because the 1st amendment disallows that.

Answer 1

The First Amendment doesn't apply to the civil unions/gay marriage issue unless the justification for prohibiting gay marriage is solely religious in nature. I think religion is the underlying issue for many opponents of gay marriage, but you're not going to find any attorney worth his salt who'd actually make a strictly religious argument.

The Fourteenth Amendment is tricky.

Here's the actual text:

"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."

Hard to get out of that - it's pretty explicit. You can make one of two arguments, as far as I see it.

One - marriage is a private contract between two or more adults. The government has no right to interfere in this contract. That's not what you want, though. You want to know how to constitutionally ban civil unions or gay marriages. This is a good option only because it takes the government out of the equation entirely.

Second - you could argue, incorrectly, that marriage isn't a liberty issue, that it's more of a government-sanctioned privilege. So, in the same way that there's discrimination based on age (voting, drink, driving, gambling, smoking) and sex (women can't serve in many areas of the military), there's also discrimination based on sexual orientation. The government also restricts contracts all the time. You can't consent to kill yourself or have others kill you, for example. You can't consent to a contract if you're under a certain age. You could make the case that marriage is a privilege, not a liberty, and that the government has the right to interfere in contracts and set boundaries regarding who can enter into contracts.

By the way, I don't believe any of this and I think my argument freaking sucks. I don't know how to successfully argue against the 14th Amendment because it's pretty air tight.

Answer 2

In my humble opinion, any marriage performed by a judge or justice of the peace should be called a civil union. The term marriage should be reserved for ceremonies performed in a church by a minister. Either way, a marriage is a legal contract. The key word here being legal. That's why we need lawyers and the courts to get a divorce. The government should have no say in civil unions. Any 2 consenting adults should be allowed a civil union. Religions and churches should also be allowed to prohibit same sex marriages. Just as the Catholic church is allowed to refuse marriages after divorce, or marriages where 1 party is non-Catholic.

The entire argument for or against civil unions or same sex marriages is purely moral/religious, and has no place in the government, as is clearly spelled out in the constitution.

Answer 3

Under the Civil Laws, only a man and a woman can contract marriage. Persons of the same sex cannot be married.

Answer 4

I don't think you can argue for the new anti-gay laws. It is not pased in the 1st amendment it is purely an equal protection 14th amendment claim.

To deny this class of citizens protection of the laws is unconstitutional...unfortunately for many of us our religion has become our law.

Answer 5

If two people are committed to each other I think they should be allowed the same right to life, liberty and happiness as the rest of us. The argument 'marriage is one man and one woman' is a fallacy. The way it is interpreted now is one man and one woman at a time; seven husbands or seven wives is still considered the true meaning of marriage. Give me a break!

Answer 6

It's an abomination against God's laws. Not one major religion in the world, not one, supports or defends the rights of homosexuals to marry in God's name. For once, I think Islam may have something going for it in this case.