CNN.com - S.F. same-sex marriages voided - Aug 12, 2004
These mayors that think they can just overrule laws because they just don't agree with them have been smacked down. This is good. The California voters clearly voted to define marriage and, to my surprise, the California Supreme Court says that is the law of the land.
Sanctioning of gay marriage cannot come from rogue politicians or solitary judicial action. It needs to be part of the democratic process. In California we have voter initiatives along with the legislature. This is the way to make laws in California.
Posted by Tim at August 12, 2004 11:36 AMI think there were lots of high profile acts of civil disobedience---okay, yes, law-breaking---in the 1950s and 1960s to promote equality among the races.
Why? I think most Americans believe morality and ethics are bigger than just what is written into public law. And at some point so many people think the morality and ethics of an issue are more important than current written public law. I think so many people believe gay Americans should be able to marry that it's starting to become a flashpoint of civil disobedience.
It's a tricky subject. When does morality trump civil law? And I'm not saying that Mayor Newsom necessarily was right in what he did. But we could probably all think of some point where our inner sense of morality would cause us to break civil law.
Posted by: Tom at August 13, 2004 06:53 AMMorality always trumps civil law. But we need to be clear - civil protests don't write the laws for how the rest live. Same-sex marriage will only be legitimate if it's willed by the people through democratic means. There's nothing tricky about that.
Posted by: Michael Gallaugher at August 13, 2004 10:10 PMre: "But we need to be clear - civil protests don't write the laws for how the rest live. Same-sex marriage will only be legitimate if it's willed by the people through democratic means. There's nothing tricky about that."
Okay a hypothetical. It's in the 1960s, still many states outlaw interracial marriage. Finally a mayor in some segregated town feels it's obvious the law is wrong. He allows some black and white couples to be married who've asked him.
Was the mayor wrong? If this takes you a little time to figure out the ethics, then I think this IS tricky.
Posted by: Tom at August 14, 2004 06:28 AM
