Today two judges on the federal 4th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling made in February that said Virginia’s Constitutional Amendment banning gay marriage was a violation of the 14th amendment. Their ruling also invalidates bans on gay marriage in 3 other states, North Carolina, South Carolina and West Virginia. So the will of the people in four states has overturned by the ruling of two judges. The people in those four states overwhelming supported marriage as it has been for the last 5,000 years, between one man and one woman. The Commonwealth had no one to defend the state’s constitutional amendment when Mark Herring announced in January that he would not defend the state law but would side with the plaintiffs in the case against the state. The two judges who upheld the ruling against Virginia were Clinton appointee Roger L. Gregory and Obama’s appointee to the court, Henry F. Floyd. One judge disagreed the majority, Paul V. Neimeyer, calling the ruling ‘fundamentally flawed’. Judge Neimeyer was appointed to the bench in 1990 by George H. W. Bush and he issued this statement,
“It fails to take into account that the ‘marriage’ that has long been recognized by the Supreme Court as a fundamental right is distinct from the newly proposed relationship of a ‘same-sex marriage.’ ”
More on the story here, here, and here.
Today Delegate Bob Marshall, co-author of the state’s marriage amendment, issued this statement:
Same Sex Marriage – A Judicial Kiss of Death for AmericaManassas, VA -In the long run, advocates and defenders of so-called same sex marriage are their own best undertakers for their hubris in attempting to deny and defy the “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God,” by which nations and cultures around the world have recognized for millennia that marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman.Although former Justice William O. Douglas explained that, “The Fourteenth Amendment was passed to give blacks first-class citizenship,” two Richmond federal judges ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment, written in the blood of 600,000+ Americans, was passed to establish same sex “marriage” as a civil right based on immoral behavior including acts that disqualify individuals from giving blood.
Judges Robert Gregory and Henry Floyd are ignorant of the purpose of the 14th Amendment, and arrogant to think they have the moral and legal authority to negate the votes of 1.3 million Virginia voters who gave their approval in 2006 to Virginia’s one-man, one-woman Marshall-Newman Marriage Amendment.
Judges Gregory and Floyd, who opine that two men or two women may “marry” each other do not define what they mean by “marriage,” don’t explain what consummates a homosexual “marriage” or why their decision does not support polygamy or marriages between adults and children “who love each other.” Will three lesbian women in Massachusetts, a “throuple,” move to Virginia to have their aberrant “marriage” relationship sanctioned by Judges Gregory and Floyd?Massive legal and social coercion will be used by GLBT advocates to secure compliance with their amoral agenda. Photographers and bakers are being fined or forced to provide services to same sex “marriages” against their conscience. The “Human Rights Campaign” is now defending teachers fired from Catholic schools after marrying same-sex partners. Pastors who refuse to conduct same sex marriage ceremonies will be sued, as has happened in the UK. Church charities that feed, clothe, house, and care for the less fortunate will suffer as these lawsuits increase.The Bob Jones Supreme Court decision upheld IRS denial of tax exempt status because the school violated “public policy” by imposing race distinctions among students. The LGBT lobby claims refusing same-sex marriage is akin to discrimination based on skin color, when in reality sexual behavior is not the same as race. Equality of persons is not the same as equality of behavior.If judicial elites impose a radical and immoral marriage regime on American citizens in defiance of the “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God,” the result would be to tear the social fabric in ways that can scarcely be imagined, nor contained by judicial arrogance. ”
Paul A. Prados has more on the story here.
30 comments
It is very disconcerting how many people are not taking “because God said so” as the important argument it is. I do believe we humans have to make a better case for what God said or others won’t get it.
Which god would that be, and from what denomittion of religion for that particular god?
Times vary. In these times there are two sides. On one is strict marriage and private property. On the other is government. Does that seem bizarre? In times past government has been a better protector of strict marriage and private property than it has become. On one side was government _with_ strict marriage and private property and on the other, people with little or no tradition at all or rebels against governments of various kinds.
Religion has always been a check on government, not only in our western tradition but around the world. When government gets too big and powerful it tries to manage more property and more aspects of our lives and it becomes a tool of those who don’t manage their own well and must depend on others.
To see the relationship between religion and capitalism look at India and China. India is more religious and more capitalist although China is learning capitalism lately.
I am not forthcoming on the particular religion that guides me because I don’t want to pit one religion against any other. In these times it is important for us to work together to ensure government is on the side of personal responsibility, strict marriage and private property. That is of course the sort of minimal government the United States was founded upon. That check on government requires religion and people who understand that. Too many in the United states have lost the art and turned their religion into another bad government that can’t keep the state in check.
There is only one God and he is the God of the Bible Jehovah is his name!
Marriage is not been “one man and one woman for 5,000 years”. Through the vast majority of recorded history, the most common form of marriage was one man and many women. In fact, that is still how marriage is practiced in large parts of the world.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity
as “normal, natural, healthy.”
This is #26 of the 45 Communist Declared Goals…
http://www.rense.com/general32/americ.htm
The Communist Takeover Of America – 45 Declared Goals
From Greg Swank
You are about to read a list of 45 goals that found their
way down the halls of our great Capitol back in 1963. As you read this,
39 years later, you should be shocked by the events that have played themselves
out. I first ran across this list 3 years ago but was unable to attain
a copy and it has bothered me ever since. Recently, Jeff Rense posted it
on his site and I would like to thank him for doing so. http://www.rense.com
Communist Goals (1963) Congressional Record–Appendix,
pp. A34-A35 January 10, 1963
Current Communist Goals EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON.
A. S. HERLONG, JR. OF FLORIDA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Thursday,
January 10, 1963 .
Mr. HERLONG. Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Patricia Nordman of De
Land, Fla., is an ardent and articulate opponent of communism, and until
recently published the De Land Courier, which she dedicated to the purpose
of alerting the public to the dangers of communism in America.
At Mrs. Nordman’s request, I include in the RECORD, under
unanimous consent, the following “Current Communist Goals,” which
she identifies as an excerpt from “The Naked Communist,” by Cleon
Skousen:
[From “The Naked Communist,” by Cleon Skousen]
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative
to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging
in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the
United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of
Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used
for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet
satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of
Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China
to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in
spite of Khrushchev’s promise in 1955 to settle the German question by
free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because
the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are
in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation
in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If
its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government
with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe
the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes
these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the
Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent
Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the
United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic
American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission
belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum.
Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against
programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review
assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion
pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading
all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to
“eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute
shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.”
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums.
“Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling
them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting
pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio,
and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity
as “normal, natural, healthy.”
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion
with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the
need for intellectual maturity, which does not need a “religious crutch.”
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression
in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of “separation
of church and state.”
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it
inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to
cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present
them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the “common man.”
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage
the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor
part of the “big picture.” Give more emphasis to Russian history
since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized
control over any part of the culture–education, social agencies, welfare
programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere
with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police
to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders
which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental
health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose
Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage
promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the
negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and
retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection
are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest
groups should rise up and use [“]united force[“] to solve economic,
political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native
populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States
cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction [over domestic
problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction] over nations and individuals
alike.
Note by Webmaster: The Congressional Record back this
far has not be digitized and posted on the Internet.
It will probably be available at your nearest library
that is a federal repository. Call them and ask them. Your college library
is probably a repository. This is an excellent source of government records.
Another source are your Congress Critters. They should be more than happy
to help you in this matter. You will find the Ten Planks of the Communist
Manifesto interesting at this point.
Webmaster Forest Glen Durland found the document in the
library.
Sources are listed below.
Microfilm: California State University at San Jose Clark
Library, Government Floor Phone (408)924-2770 Microfilm Call Number: J
11.R5
Congressional Record, Vol. 109 88th Congress, 1st Session
Appendix Pages A1-A2842 Jan. 9-May 7, 1963 Reel 12
1963- The Year That Changed America
By Greg Swank
Get government out of marriage altogether.
For all legal rights, a civil union would be the government-recognized “contract” between two parties. All couples (regardless of sex) would obtain a civil union agreement to secure those rights, like hospital visitation and wills, for example.
Marriage would be the religious union of one man and one woman.
Problem solved.
The Laws of Nature and Nature’s God does not fondly look at judges who are unrighteous and turn what is wrong into what is right, and what is right into something wrong.
Jeanine, as I explained before, the “overwhelming majority” who voted for the Amendment in 2006 has since given way to a majority of Virginians who support same-sex marriage.
Wrong it means that a liberal attorney general refused to defend a law . I love how lefties claim something shoved down the throats of people is a majority ! Just like Obama Care right ? Marriage is between one man and one woman .
Sandy, I think you will find that after most, if not all, circuits overturn states’ bans on homosexual marriage, the issue will be decided by the US Supreme Court.
Sandy, I think you misinterpreted what I said. My point is that a majority of Virginians–and Americans–support same-sex marriage.
Then there should be no problem having another amendment on the ballot. Two judges shouldn’t be able to change our laws.
jeanine: the judges didn’t change the law, they ruled it unconstitutional. the US Constitution provides for this.
The result is the same, a change in the law in Virginia.
You just don’t get it.
That’s because we do not speak clown.
If a law is found to be unconstitutional – which the Virginia amendment has been – then it was never a law at all.
If the people could put something on the ballot, that might work. But the Republicans in the General Assembly would never allow such a proposition to be on the ballot, because they would lose the vote.
The people elect those members of the general assembly. If the people really wanted the laws changed they would elect pro same-sex marriage people the general assembly which hasn’t happened. Whether the people truly are for or against same sex marriage today in VA doesn’t really matter. The people were certainly opposed to it in 2006. But apparently they think drastically differently less than a decade later according to Stephen Spiker. There’s no way to know the exact way people would vote unless it was on the ballot again.
And I’ll remind you that Republican George Allen lost his re-election bid in 2006. His name was on the ballot as was the marriage referendum, so it’s not like there was an overwhelming number of Republicans who voted in 2006 and that’s how the amendment was passed.
The Marriage amendment received 57% of the vote versus Allen’s 49%.
When something becomes law via voter referendum, it’s kind of bullshit when a judge or AG can simply decide it’s no longer a law.
It’s not bullshit. The majority can’t decide which rights a minority will or will not have.
then your alternative is to change the Constitution to eliminate the judiciary.
That almost sounds reasonable, except that the legislative districts have been drawn to ensure that Republicans hold a large majority in the Assembly, so it doesn’t matter if most Virginians support same-sex marriage if most voters in Republican primaries in most districts oppose it.
Really ? The didn’t Virginians ALREADY vote on this once before – they voted to define marriage as an institution between a man and woman, right?
Spiker is a RINO!
How can you possibly know this? There hasn’t been a vote since 2006. We don’t amend the constitution based on the momentary whims of public opinion polls.
That’s exactly what happened in 2006
you are exactly right. the Constitution provides for the Judicial branch to settle issues of constitutionality. that’s the way our Constitution was written.
Mr. Squid, I’m not suggesting we amend the Constitution based on polls, nor am I suggesting that the outcome of the court decision is tied to polls.
I’m pushing back on Jeanine’s assertion that a majority of Virginians support a ban on same-sex marriage. That was true in 2006; it is no longer true.
You can believe it to be a “whim”, if you like, and believe that soon the tide will turn back in your favor. I think that is rather unlikely.
So says the RINO clown!