Last week on Wednesday, February 23, the Obama administration ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act or “DOMA” — which was previously signed into law by the Clinton administration in 1996 and defends marriage as between one man and one woman — unconstitutional.
The response by top scholars and critics has been swift. Outlined for you today is coverage of what Dr. Robert George, Dr. Hadley Arkes, Dr. Gerard Bradley, and Dr. Matt Franck have to say about this change and the implications for the future of marriage. In the words of Hadley Arkes: “Obama owns the issue now. It is his task to explain it to us.”
Dr. Matthew Franck considers Obama’s decision to be not an act of executive assertion, but of deference to the courts in “Obama, DOMA, and Constitutional Responsibility.”
While the president’s “personal” position on same-sex marriage continues to “evolve,” his administration has announced a view of the Constitution that tells us all we need to know about where Mr. Obama wants the country to end up.
Dr. Robert George includes his thoughts in this article, “Obama’s decision on marriage law raises questions on religious liberty, future of marriage.”
“He treats that belief as if it were a mere prejudice, as though it is motivated by a desire to cause harm to people,” George told CNA Feb. 24. “Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. It is a legitimate moral belief that has informed our law throughout history.”
Dr. Hadley Arkes authors a great piece for National Review Online, closing the article with questions to Obama, testing the coherence and rationale of the argument for same-sex ‘marriage’ in “Obama and Same-Sex Marriage: He Owns It Now.”
Obama has a track record in not knowing what he is talking about. The subtext should be that, on marriage, as in Obamacare, he has just not thought things through. He is altogether too blithe, too thoughtless, as he shows his willingness to recast an institution that has been bound up with the laws as long as there have been laws. And the best way of conveying the point is to take him seriously in the judgment he has now announced, on the basis of his credentials to speak on matters of constitutional law.
Dr. Gerard Bradley pipes in with his thoughts in “Obama’s Unreasonable Abandonment of DOMA.”
Supporters of same-sex marriage have been toasting the President and each other for several days now. They are confidently predicting tidal waves of change in the wake of Holder’s announcement. Do not believe it. Talking that way is part of their script. Theirs is the tale often told of inevitable “progress,” the story in which same-sex marriage has an undeniable rendezvous with destiny.
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